Oral-motor skills refer to the actions of the mouth, lips, tongue, cheeks and jaw. These skills include the functions of sucking, biting, crunching, chewing, and licking. For effective, comfortable eating, children require adequate oral-motor skills.
Functional oral-motor skills, however, depend on many factors beyond mouth muscles. A child with poor oral-motor skills and restricted eating frequently exhibits:
* Low muscle tone
* Poor postural tone
* Poor coordination
* Poor body awareness
* Poor speech and language development
* Inadequate breath control
* Inflexible attitude
* Poor self-regulation
* Distractibility
* Sensory processing and modulation issues
Oral-Motor Skill Acquisition:
* 4-6 months:
Child is able to sit with support and uses whole hand to grasp objects. Child puts fingers, toys, and clothing into mouth for sucking and exploration. Gag reflex is diminishing. Child can use lips to clear food off spoon.
* 7-9 months:
Child can sit comfortably in a high chair to feed self finger foods and can follow food with his eyes. He uses a pincer grasp (thumb and index finger) to feed self finger foods. He feels comfortable eating lumpy, ground, or finely chopped foods. Child may experiment with a spoon. Mouthing non-food items increases as teething begins and as sensory awareness and discrimination becomes greater.
* 10-12 months:
Child is gaining better eye-hand coordination to independently hold a cup to his mouth and use a spoon, although food is often spilled on self, table and food. Lip closure while swallowing liquids and solids mean little food loss around mouth. By 12 months, child can easily separate what lumpy parts to swallow from what needs more chewing in mouth and can easily bite a soft cookie. Child is starting to eat coarsely chopped foods and small pieces of soft food and meats. Child is learning to drink from a straw.
* 13-15 months:
Toddler can sit in high chair or stool so is right height at table. Be sure to provide foot rests for support. Drinking from open cup is more refined with less spilling when cup is removed from mouth. Child is able to use smooth, well-coordinated movements of jaw to chew. Tip of tongue can lift independently to explore roof of mouth and palate, although this skill may be delayed if a child relies on a spouted cup which prevents the tongue this opportunity for practice. Choking and coughing are rare during long drinking sequences. Drool is able to be controlled by 15 mouths when attempting motor skills. Mild drooling may be seen during teething.
* 16-18 months:
The child may not need the high chair and may be able to sit at the family table. Children can feed themselves independently using fingers, spoon and cup. There is minimal loss of food during eating and minimal spillage.
* 19-24 months:
The child has acquired the basics for skilled eating patterns. The tongue can clean off the lips. The child can engage in advanced fine motor play and speak two-word combinations without drooling. The types of food eaten are varied because of personal preferences not because of lack of skill or coordination.
* 25-36 months:
The child can use tongue to clean area between gums and cheeks rather than using fingers. The child grades jaw openings and bites for different thicknesses of food. Mature rotary chewing is observed. The child learns more oral-motor control and the mouth grows and changes with the loss and adding of new teeth.