WAVING

Myofunktional Exercise  Collection

Application:

to enlarge click picture

Introduction exercise for a heavily disoriented tongue.

Contents:

Sensibilization (Orientation). By this elementary and visually controlled type of muscle action of the tongue the patient is obliged to experience the, at first, consciously controllable, later on, coordinable

Materials:

Hand-mirror

Procedure:

- Previous exercises: This is a most simple starting exercise for the restitution of a deeply disturbed tongue function.

-Starting position: A tolerable SITTING POSITION will be required.

- Step-by-step-description:

-1 The patient is watching his image in the hand-mirror, the therapist follows the procedure by looking over the patients shoulder.

-2 Slowly the mouth opens letting a small, tender tongue tip look out, which is floating between the lips without touching its vicinity.

-3 Now its tip bends upwards touching the upper lip,

-4 then bends down to touch the lower lip,

-5 then up and down and up and down…

-Timing: Frequency rhythm in a one-second-beat; “up-down” = “one-and”, “up-down” = “two-and”…….. . Eventually with the exercise being mastered the flow of motion may be sped up.

Characteristics:

External and internal tongue muscles; Motivation, Sensibilization, Stereognosis (Orientation), Sensomotorics, Kinesthesis (Mobility, Motility).

Remarks:

The goal is the physiological movability. That does not only mean to reach the optimum motion is reached but, as well, that is will not be – even not during practicing – exceeded. When the mouth is open the tongue looks out of the window but it does not lean out as not to fall out. The incisal edge border is not trespassed!

Discussion:

A fundamental tongue function disorder including a missing Sensitivity and Mobility may justify the protruding of the tongue tip; principally those tongue exercises should be avoided which allow the tongue tip to pass the “magic” border of the incisal edges rostrally as a tongue extrusion may cause many negative, even textural alterations.

The therapist follows the actions looking over the shoulder of the patient into the mirror as not to distract the attention from the reflection. The tongue appears

small and tender, as a comparison “like a snail warily moving out from its shell.”

With this procedure the movements of the patient get controllable.

Some patients in the beginning are not able to move their tongue deliberately – they tend to getting under stress. Trough this practice they envision along with mirror-control and supervision an organ feeling with the possibility of a conscious influence upon an apparently not controllable movement.

The exercise leads to the perception of the POINT, the recommended succeeding exercise is PROVE-THE-POINT, later on LICK. As the current exercise gets along without any manipulation it avoids an occasional primary hypersensitivity against the touch of other persons.

Instructions:

The tongue plays snail coming out of its shell to wave to you in the mirror.

The mouth opens and the tongue gets out, small faint and tender not touching its vicinity.

Now the tongue tip tilts up to touch the upper lip, down to the lower lip, up, down regularly alternating.

This is how the tongue is waving, up and down goes the tip.

Counting out means: up ad down –one, up and down – two …. and so forth.

Repeat ten times or as often as fixed.

And at the end the tongue will have to wave from inside without leaning out of the window.