TONGUESHAPING

Myofunktional Exercise  Collect ion

Application:

to enlarge click picture

For lateral tongue problems or a  “too broad” or “too big” tongue this exercise may be used as a starting help ahead of the original myofunctional exercises.

Contents:

Learn to feel through self manipulation.

Materials:

Tongue, finger, hand mirror.

Procedure:

- Previous exercises: This exercise is but a pre-exercise in itself. Practicable would be to introduce the POINT.

-Starting position: Not defined, recommendable the POINTPOSTURE.

- Step-by-step-description:

-1 The patient gets his mouth wide open and sticks the tongue out. Procedure control in a mirror.

-2 The tongue, now, gets as slender and tipped as possible. (The therapist knows from the diagnosis that this is not achievable.)

-3 To make the tongue feel how its form should be, now, at first the therapist, later on the patient himself squeezes the tongue body roughly in its middle portion sideways with thumb and index finger together and holds the position up to half a minute.

In the initial phase there is a pause now followed by a repetition of step -1 to -3; later on follows directly step

-4 The fingers release the pressure the tongue retains the pinched form.

This step order (1 to 4) will also be continued till the step -4 is accomplished. Only the will follow step

-5 The preformed tongue, now, slowly and cautiously is drawn back into the mouth and led to the POINT. Now again practicing up to here until all details can be managed. Then will follow the last step:

-6 the formed tongue up to the POINT and hold it with counting up.

-Timing: A certain timing is prearranged by the step succession. For step -5 an increased counting till about twenty is recommendable. For relaxing the ALTERNATIVE EXERCISE  BAGGY TONGUE is valuable.

Characteristics:

Homoiostereognosis, deep sensitivity, information.

Remarks:

This is no myo-functional exercise in the sense of the word, as it contains no physiological muscle function; quite helpful as a pre-exercise it should rather sooner than later been replaced by one of the exercises mentioned below.

Discussion:

This exercise is used to lead the patient towards the task to get mainly the transversal tongue muscle tracks under control. Presumably, though, the interest in the own tongue is stimulated. More effective exercises with an enhanced myofunctional quality should replace the here discussed. As such can be counted:

 DRAW-BACK ,

 PODGY TONGUE- SLIM TONGUE,

 SLENDER TONGUE

and possibly TONGUE CONTACTS.

Instructions:

The tongue is spreading too spaciously in the mouth hole. This has generates quite some damage – so we have to Make it stop that and we will be help it in that way:

Open the mouth and let the tongue look out.

Now it will have to get slim and slender.

If it is not able to do that alone at the start, we will be helpful with thumb and forefinger – let’s just squeeze it together from the sides. No so dreadfully!

Like that the tongue should stay now.

If the tongue got it, we start the second part of our exercise.

The tongue, now, will creep slowly back into the mouth and keep its slim line at the same time. Till up to the POINT, to its usual seat it creeps.

There it stays slim and slender till you have counted to twenty. Relax and repeat, five times or as often, as we agreed about.