PEA SHOOTER

Myofunktional Exercise  Collection

Application:

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This exercise comes as a game teaching to gain coordination and feeling with the mouth musculature

Contents:

Small pellets are ejected through a sudden straining of the “belt group” (favourably by continuated nose breathing) and simultaneous opening of the inner straw aperture by the tongue-tip (which thereby gets sensibilized); the “shots” have before been loaded into the front straw opening. They are formed from bits of (wet) paper, Plasticine would be stamped flat at the most inappropriate location, and grains of rice are too good for that.

Materials:

Drinking straw, paper snippets (pellets).

Procedure:

- Previous exercises: Not necessary (BALLOON

  recommendable).

-Starting position: not compulsory.

- Step-by-step-description:

-1 The patient forms a small pallet from soggy paper snippets – from hygienical reasons as well a scrap of paper towel may be moistened and curled up to a ball of rice grain size with the fingers.

-2 The pellet is gently stuffed into one of the straw openings.

-3 The other straw end is taken between the lips and shut tight with the tongue tip.

-4 The cheeks are “puffed out”. When the exercise BALLOON has already been trained this may be taken as a start.

-5 Simultaneously, now, the tongue lets the straw opening come free while the cheeks are pressing together; the ball flies away.

-Timing: No prescription.

Characteristics:

GAME-EXERCISE, information, motivation, sensitation, orientation, (kinaesthesia, coordination).

Remarks:

The danger of aspiration has to be considered.

Discussion:

This exercise has no plain, effective training effect. It serves, however, to make the patient to occupy himself with his own mouth hole and to carry out coordinative actions.  This is why this exercise is especially constructive for unskilled patients to be lead up to working with the orofacial musculature. In a somewhat improved state of this exercise single steps may be accentuate as the closure of the straw opening with the tongue-tip, pressing with the cheek muscles or even the shooting off of the ball with the air pressure from inside the oral cavity when breathing on through the nose. The exercise may also bee used as an “interlude”exercise to loosen up the program.

Instructions:

You should, perhaps, have already done the exercise BALLOON or  BLOW THE  STRAW as it now gets more straining.

First of all you should make your “ammunition”. This is easily made from a stamp size piece of paper “chewed” soggy and then rolled between the fingers to form a small lump, big enough to fit  well into one of the drinking straw openings. This is now being “loaded” – the pellet stuffed in.

The other end of the straw is taken between the lips and the inside opening shut with the tongue-tip. Now, blow up the mouth to a BALLOON and go on breezing regularly through your nose!

Now:

Off goes the tongue-tip from the straw opening and “popp” the ball flies off. With this the cheek muscles help pressing to get the ball some drive. You can do that until the balls are lying about all over the place.