[ Post a Response | Oral/Motor and Voice ]
Posted by me on 10/4/2004, 6:14 pm, in reply to "jaw grading"
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jaw grading has certainly received alot of attention lately in the oral motor world. I suppose it's important with certain types of cases, but I have to say that I've attended several of Char Boshart's seminars on oral motor and i don't recall that jaw grading was given much attention.
I looked over my book from Sara Rosenfield Johnson (whatever her name is)about speech clarity therapy. She has 8 levels of jaw opening. For example, "ah" is said with the jaw quite open and lowered but "t" has less of an opening. She has bite blocks of different sizes, i guess one size for each degree of jaw opening. She talks about jaw weakness, assymmetry in strength, jaw stability. She says some people habitually have a open jaw position and talk that way and it affects intelligbility. Or they may speak with a closed position (like a perpetual smile) and again, it could affect intelligibility.
I think an important saying that I got from Char Boshart was "where the jaw goes, then so does the tongue." So if jaw stability isn't normal, tongue stability won't be either.
Is there a way to assess jaw grading without buying special equipment? I don't know. The pretzel stick test sounds good but it tests only one degree of jaw opening, not the 8 levels of opening that SRJ looks at.
Unless you see the jaw shifting side to side or jutting out during connected speech, jaw stability may not be an issue. Speaking of jutting out, this brings to mind the girl "Stephanie" on Full House. She seemed to really have that jutting jaw and her speech was a little odd too, if you watched her carefully.
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Thank you for sharing!