Teaching Tongue Lateralization as a Component of Chewing Instruction

This study evaluated the efficacy of a treatment package which included tongue lateralization as part of chewing instruction. Participants consisted of three children who consumed only pureed food and had no history of chewing. Using the outcome measures, tongue lateralization and chewing, we demonstrated improvements in these outcomes for each of the three children. Prior to the end of treatment, all three transitioned to table food and continued to consume table food in follow-up. In addition to measuring changes in observed outcomes, three speech pathologists not involved with the intervention independently rated video clips taken across the course of treatment for each child. These independent raters reported improvements in both tongue lateralization and chewing. The current study was the first to demonstrate a method of integrating tongue lateralization into an intervention for chewing.