Nonverbal Oro-Motor Exercises: Do They Really Work for Phonoarticulatory Difficulties?

Pablo Parra-López, Marina Olmos-Soria and Ana V. Valero-García
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Pablo Parra-López: Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain
Marina Olmos-Soria: Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain
Ana V. Valero-García: Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: Articulation disorders are deficiencies in the realization of speech sounds unrelated to organic or neurological disorders. Over the last decade, there has been a debate on the efficiency of non-verbal oro-motor exercises, which are orofacial movements programmed and organized in an intentional and coordinated way to control lips, tongue, and soft palate muscles. Of the 122 children evaluated, 52 presented articulatory difficulties. An intervention with nonverbal oro-motor exercises was applied, and children were again assessed following treatment. The results showed no differences between the experimental and control groups, either in the number of sounds that improved after this period or in the severity of difficulties (we categorized those with articulation difficulties in two to six sounds as ‘medium’ and those with difficulties in articulating more than seven sounds as ‘severe’). These results indicated that nonverbal oro-motor exercises alone are not efficient for intervention in difficulties in the realization of sounds in 4-year-old children.

Keywords: articulation disorder; nonverbal oro-motor exercises; intervention in difficulties in articulation; practice-based evidence; phonetic disorder; childhood (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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