Research Evidence Regarding Oral Motor Exercises

Dr. Gregory Lof has generously shared his document entitled: Why NOT to Use Nonspeech Oral Motor Exercises for Speech Sound Disorders: Logic, Theory and Evidence. Additionally, Dr. Lof and his colleague, Dr. Maggie Watson, have shared their resource, Parent-Friendly Information about Nonspeech Oral Motor Exercises.

Gregory Lof, PhD, CCC-SLP, is the Department Chair and Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions. He has dedicated his career to studying the lack of efficacy for using nonspeech oral motor exercises to change speech sound productions. In these documents, Drs. Lof and Watson summarize the current evidence which demonstrates that SLPs should focus on speech production. Further information about Dr. Lof and his work can be found here.

Interested readers may also access these resources from Caroline Bowen or from the Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America (CASANA), available here and here.