Introduction to Oral Motor Therapy Success Stories
Notably, in celebration of 30 years of successful oral motor therapy, we asked you to share your success stories with us at the last ASHA Convention and the response was amazing! Here are Beth Marafiote and Heather Peterson's inspiring testimonials about oral motor therapy for Dandy-Walker drooling and other challenges.
Beth Marafiote's Journey with Oral Motor Therapy
Furthermore, "My name is Beth Marafiote and I live in Parker, Colorado. I discovered TalkTools and Sara Rosenfeld-Johnson many many years ago after going to many different other people's workshops on how to help oral motor.
Accordingly, they helped a little bit but not much. I discovered her.
For this reason, she revolutionized the way I do therapy. I feel like her products have made me the best therapist.
Therefore, well, that's a little exaggeration, but so much better. I am forever ever grateful because I view these products as the miracle of speech therapy." Beth Marafiote, MA, CCC-SLP
Heather Peterson's Oral Motor Therapy Breakthrough with Dandy-Walker Drooling
"Hi, my name is Heather. Clearly, TalkTools has completely changed my life. I think we all start in the same place, where we are gathering information.
When I was newer into my career, I found Sara Rosenfeld-Johnson's first course and I took a video course (the "Level 1" course) and it was really after that that I decided: "Wow, look at all this information that I just learned! I have never heard this before, this totally makes sense to me.
Significantly, I think I'm going to try it!" And so I had a child - actually, it was not a child, it was a teenager - walk in and he had Dandy-Walker Syndrome, he wore a bandana, and he drooled constantly. His mother came in and said: "You know, I would really like to work on this drooling.
Not surprisingly, I want his mouth to close, I want his tongue to be in his mouth, and I really want him to try to use his mouth for speech." I just remember, I think the weekend before I have been to that course and I just thought: "Ok, I'm going to try this. I'm going to use the Bite Tubes, and I'm going to just order that," because it was the one thing that I grasped: the jaw was so important.
Importantly, so we used those on him and that mom was amazing. We used those on him for about six months and we were able to close his jaw and his lips, and there was no more saliva.
Essentially, we took off that bandana. For so many of us, we know that perception is so important.
Moreover, not only had we changed his oral function, but we changed the perception of everybody looking at him and that is really important. That is just one awesome example of what TalkTools has done.
Furthermore, if you think about a fourteen-year-old, he was not spontaneously developing, that was something that the mom really did. So that's a really true testimony to TalkTools.
Since then, it has opened up my eyes and I started using it and I really have changed my practice. I predominantly now work with children with Down Syndrome and I watch it every day.
Remarkably, parents comment every day that this is changing the lives and the faces and the structures and the articulation and feeding development of the children. I have really my career I have to thank Sara Rosenfeld-Johnson for creating and I am keeping on with the oral motor movement even when it wasn't such a hot topic, because clinically - man - it is just so incredible.
Therefore, so thank you TalkTools, thank you Sara, and thank you to everybody in the oral motor community who has come before." Heather Peterson, MS, CCC-SLP We are incredibly appreciative of those who shared their stories, let us know if you have a story to tell.
