Oral muscle training for autism

There are many causes of autism, which most often occurs in childhood. Due to family or certain factors, children become quiet and don't like to play with other children. It manifests itself in symptoms such as language development disorders, interpersonal communication disorders, and slow intelligence. We can usually alleviate the condition of autism by training the oral muscles, allowing people with autism to have more contact with the outside world and communicate more with the outside world.

The goals of oral muscle training are:

1. Improve pronunciation and speech clarity

2. Enhance the independent mobility of oral muscles

① Independent mobility: The separate movement of one or more muscle groups based on stability and sufficient strength

②Graded regulation: Based on independent activity, through segmented control of spatial movement (Children with Down syndrome have difficulty in graded regulation of the abdominal cavity, and cannot control airflow when speaking)

③ Tight posture: used to compensate for abnormal posture with weak stability, which hinders mobility (because Down syndrome children have low muscle tension, they will adopt a tight posture when speaking, such as: when drinking water, they flatten the straw and cannot drink the water, which means that there is a difficulty with the lower jaw, so they take the action of flattening the straw to compensate for the action of drinking water)

Training methods for children with autism:

1. Queueing training: Practice children’s static waiting awareness in a group (reinforcements can be used, etc.) and routines (forming a line, queuing).

2. Cooperate with group activity training: Cultivate children's initiative and persistence in doing things through simple and skilled projects. For example: (doing pre-class routine)

3. For continuous practice of group activities: diversify the forms and exaggerate the language to continuously attract children's attention. (Regional routine: push the ball, throw and catch the ball.)

4. Target time training:

(1) Focus on the goal and generalize the projects. All projects serve the goal, which not only strengthens the projects but also improves the children’s insufficient abilities.

(2) Practice by breaking down the target tasks: If the target is too difficult, break it down into several small targets and start with the simplest exercises to stimulate children’s interest in learning.

(3) Each project should be connected with each other through encouragement and guidance, without giving children time to play freely.

5. Cultivate children's habit of listening to instructions:

The prerequisite for children to listen to instructions is that parents must listen to instructions. Parents are the children's teachers. Therefore, every word and action will leave an impression on the children and form habits. Good habits are also formed over a long period of time, and vice versa (for example: the habit of going to and leaving get out of class).

6. Remedial training of sensory systems

Autism mainly comes from children's sensory disorders. These children have difficulty adapting to the group, poor persistence, poor waiting awareness, unstable emotions (excitement, screaming), and are too sensitive to the environment. If there is a slight change in the outside world, they will feel insecure. Therefore, they will definitely not cooperate in class. To solve the problems of these children, we must simultaneously keep up the amount of sensory stimulation. The key to solving this problem is to strengthen perceptual learning.