Tag Archives: oral motor therapy

Explore oral motor therapy tools and techniques that enhance speech, feeding, and respiratory function by strengthening muscles involved in the mouth and face.

Levels of Whistle and Blow Toys Explained

Oral Motor, Sensory Regulation, , , , ,

Whistle and blow toys are more than just fun — they’re powerful tools in oral motor therapy that support breath control, lip closure, sensory regulation, and multisensory integration. Whether used by occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, or other pediatric specialists, whistle and blow toys can be strategically selected and graded to match a child’s specific needs and abilities.

In the clinical guide M.O.R.E.: Integrating the Mouth With Sensory and Postural Functions, the authors explain how oral motor activities engage the sensory and postural systems simultaneously. Blowing activates the muscles of respiration and the oral-motor system while also stimulating alerting or calming effects, depending on intensity and pacing. Synchronizing breath with visual tracking or postural tasks further enhances body awareness and regulation. Selecting the right level of whistle or blow toy ensures that the activity challenges the child appropriately and supports therapeutic progress.

Understanding the Levels

Level 1 Whistles – Low Resistance, High Accessibility

These are ideal for children with reduced breath support or limited oral motor control. They require minimal pressure and allow success with less precise lip closure.

Echo microphone blow toy

Therapro Recommendations:

Level 2 Whistles – Moderate Breath Control Required


 These tools are appropriate for children who have mastered basic breath activation and are ready to develop sustained airflow and coordination.

Therapro Recommendations:

  • Whistling Straws: Require focused airflow, ideal for mid-level strength building.
  • Floating Ball Game: Combines visual tracking with breath control, great for synchronizing breath and eye coordination.
Floating Ball Game blow toy

Level 3 Whistles – High Resistance, Advanced Control

These challenge even strong blowers. They demand powerful, sustained breath and refined control, activating deeper postural and respiratory systems.

Balloon Car Racer blow toy

Therapro Recommendations:

Therapeutic Benefits

  • Breath Support & Control: Essential for speech production, sustained phonation, and self-regulation.
  • Oral Motor Development: Enhances strength and coordination of the lips, cheeks, and tongue.
  • Sensory Regulation: Blowing can be alerting or calming, depending on resistance and activity structure.
  • Multisensory Integration: Eye-breath coordination and posture-breath synchrony help develop attention and motor planning.

Therapro’s full line of whistle and blow toys is organized to help therapists and parents choose developmentally appropriate tools that support targeted outcomes. For a deeper understanding of how oral motor input integrates with sensory and postural systems, consider adding M.O.R.E. to your resource library.

Explore Therapro’s oral motor therapy tools today and discover how simple, affordable tools can deliver powerful therapeutic results.

Guest Blogger: Karen Conrad Weihrauch, PhD, OTR/L

ezpz Mini Feeding Set

Facilitation of Feeding Skill Development

Feeding Therapy, Feeding Tools, , , , ,

Feeding specialists must select appropriate tools when facilitating feeding skill development. There are a myriad of materials available that make it challenging for therapists to select the tools that match the needs of their pediatric clients. Therapro is always in quest of useful, practical, and therapeutic oral-motor and feeding tools that will promote feeding skill development. Innovative designs are widely available to therapists and families for utensils, cups, and oral tools that are conceived to help advance oral development and feeding skills. We’ve reviewed extensively what is available to therapists and families, and are able to offer these new items from ezpz with our stamp of approval. All materials used are safe and a breeze to clean.

ezpz Oral Development Tools used for Facilitating early Feeding Skill Development

Oral Development: Oral Development Tools are designed to provide oral sensorimotor input for babies and youngsters who are beginning to explore their mouths. The 3 tools (loop, smile, and stick) are easy to grasp and provide smooth and textured surfaces. They can be used without food to explore oral movement for pre-speech activities, provide oral sensation, and can also be dipped in liquids and graded food textures to facilitate oral motor skills of the lips, tongue, jaw, and cheeks. The Oral Development Tools are a great tool for facilitating early feeding skill development.

The ezpz Developmental Utensil Set

Utensils: The Developmental Utensil Set consists of utensils for infants age 4 months+ called Tiny Spoons; Mini Utensils (fork and spoon) for infants age 12 months; and Happy Utensils (fork, spoon, and knife) for children 2 years+. The entire set consists of 7 utensils that can be used as the child’s feeding skills develop.  The Happy Utensils are available as a separate set that encourage safe and successful self feeding. These utensils are a great tool for facilitating the development of scooping, piercing, spreading and cutting needed for successful self feeding.

Developmental Cup Set

Cups: The Developmental Cup Set is a developmental training system for teaching cup and straw drinking skills. It introduces open cup drinking for infants 4 months+ using a Tiny Cup (2 oz). The Mini Cup and Straw Training System is the next level with a 4 oz cup, screw on lid and flexible, durable straw for infants 9 months+. For the older toddler (2 years+), the Happy Cup and Straw System consists of an 8 oz cup with screw on lid and flexible, durable straw. The system promotes oral skills including lip closure, lip rounding, tongue cupping and elevation. All 3 of the cups are available individually as well as in the set.

These ezpz tools are a great resource for facilitating feeding skill development. You will be able to examine and try out these new products and many more when you visit Therapro’s exhibit at the ASHA Conference in Boston on November 16-18. We’ll see you then!

Guest Blogger: Filomena Connor, MSOTR, Retired

Oral Motor Treatment Strategies: Part 3

Oral Motor, ,

On June 16, 2020, Therapro hosted a very popular webinar presented by Dr. Kate Barlow on the topic of Oral Motor Treatment Strategies. In past blog posts, we reviewed great takeaways from the webinar, as well as strategies for assessments that Dr. Barlow shared with viewers. Dr. Barlow also covered some effective treatment strategies during the webinar, as attendees reviewed: 

This seminar provided great ideas on how to provide intervention strategies to children with oral motor difficulties. TH

Well presented course, instructor passionate and knowledgeable. As a PT I appreciate the information, insights, and learning content that was presented. JW

Kate is passionate about helping families and children with feeding issues. She presents a variety of strategies and explains why and how these strategies support positive outcomes. The strategies presented can also be implemented in school based practice which is a challenging setting to service and document feeding therapy. ME

Thanks – it was very helpful! Many great takeaways that I will implement in my practice right away. ML

In this post we will take a look at the treatment strategies shared by Dr. Barlow during the Oral Motor Treatment Strategies webinar.

Dr. Barlow gave useful background information to help viewers understand the “why” when planning treatment. For example, she spent time reviewing type 2 muscle fibers – did you know that most of the muscles used for swallowing are type 2 muscle fibers? Given this information, it is easy to understand why it is so important not only to use resistance but also to increase the resistance and workload when planning treatment for oral motor strengthening. Dr. Barlow also reviewed that age and cognitive consideration should be taken into account when deciding on a treatment plan. Check out some of these other effective treatment ideas that Dr. Barlow covered: 

  • To work on lip closure, try an activity as simple as blowing kisses! This is an easy strategy in which all members of the family can easily participate – without any tools!
  • For lip and tongue awareness, Dr. Barlow shared the clever idea of putting a spoon in a cup of ice water for a few hours. The cold spoon can be used in a number of ways to help bring awareness to these areas.
  • For tongue lateralization, Dr. Barlow shared some strategies using handheld munchables.
  • Dr. Barlow also covered some tools that can be used in oral motor treatment.  For example:
    • Bubbles and blow toys are fun ways to develop lip strength.
    • Lip Bloks are a helpful tool when working on tongue retraction.
    • Z-vibes can be used for so many things like developing cheek strength, working on lip closure, and developing lip and tongue awareness.
    • Straws are a fun tool that can be used to work on  lip closure and tongue retraction.

Check out the full video to watch Dr. Barlow demonstrate some of these great treatment strategies and demo some tools she uses in her own treatment!