How To Reduce or Stop Your Child from Drooling

Depending on your child’s age, drooling can be something that he or she is a temporary side effect and byproduct of teething.  If your child has already begun teething and isn’t able to stop from drooling, there are a few things you can do to help him or her exercise the oral muscles and gain control of this area.  While your child’s oral function may be underdeveloped, you can still use exercises to enhance and teach oral muscle function.

A Few Practical Tips

§  Take away the pacifier, or at least reduce the time during which your child is using it. Preferably only allow your child to use it before bed to help put him or her to sleep.  Pacifiers may have a poor effect on children’s speech and oral control.  However, you do not have to do away with pacifiers altogether; only use it when absolutely necessary to calm down an aggravated child.  When you use a pacifier, pair it with a blanket or pillow so it will be easier to wean them off of it later.

§  Stimulate your child’s oral muscles with an electric toothbrush. This is a popular technique to engage children with oral sensations.  Start slow by touching it to the child’s lips and cheeks when it is turned off.  Then move to the child’s tongue, gums and teeth. *Note: Do not do this when a child is teething, he or she will most likely not respond well to this.

§  Upgrade from the bottle to a sippy cup. Bottles have the same ill effects as a pacifier if used for too long.  Each step to a new cup further promotes different muscles used in the mouth.

§  After the sippy cup move on to using a straw. Most children who use straws often solve their drooling issue when this skill is mastered.

Activities to Strengthen the Oral Muscles

·        Allow your child to learn how to suck, chew and bite on different textures.

·        Straws and sippy cups can aid in teaching your child how to suck

·        Blow bubbles or feathers

·        Teaching him/her to use the mouth in different ways strengthens different oral muscle groups

·        Encourage playing with food by licking yogurt or applesauce from their lips or off of plates

·        Picking up cheerios with their mouth and other food play will help them shape their tongue and lips to not only keep the drool in their mouth, but articulate words as well.  

If these techniques have little or no effect on your child’s drooling problem, there may be other variables causing it.  If your child is a mouth breather, has restless sleep or chronic sinus congestion, he or she could be suffering from allergies to food or even respiratory problems.

Chicago Speech Therapy

What We Know About Young Children, TV and Medial Violence

Psychologists, educators, and other researchers have studied how TV affects young children. Here are some of the main points they emphasize:

• Young children watch more television than any other age group.
  Between the ages of 2 and 3, most children develop a favorite television show and begin to acquire the habit of watching television. American children between the ages of 2 and 5 spend more time watching TV than any other age group! (Presumably, school and other activities cut down on viewing time for children in the 6 to 17-year-old category.) Among other things, heavy TV viewing can also mean heavy exposure to violence. Children's programming has consistently been found to have higher levels of violence than any other category of programming. And young children also frequently watch violent programming intended for adults.
   
• Young children can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality.
  Your preschooler's rich imagination is a big part of his normal development, but that means it is usually hard for him to tell the difference between what's real and what's imaginary. Preschoolers cannot always understand that what they see on television is made up, especially when it looks so much like real life, so it's especially difficult for them to distinguish between television violence and real- life violence.
   
• Young children are particularly susceptible to media violence.
  Because they lack the life experience to evaluate what they are watching, preschoolers are not critical viewers of the violence they see in television programs, movies, and videotapes. They simply accept the violent behavior they see as real and normal.
   
• Young children learn by imitating what they see, so television can be a powerful teacher.
  Television can teach your child about violence and aggressive behavior, but perhaps in ways you have not considered before. For instance, because most 3 to 6-year-olds want to feel that they are strong and in control of their world, they often identify with TV characters who are powerful and effective. But what they see most often are superheroes and other characters who solve problems with violence, usually as a first resort, and then are rewarded for doing so. When young children watch TV or videos that present violence as successful, exciting, funny, pleasurable, and commonplace, it can be easy for them to accept the "TV way" as real and desirable.
   
• Preschoolers need a variety of real experiences and real playtime in order to grow and develop.
  Your growing child needs a wide range of activities and experiences. She needs a mix of physical activity, lots of "hands-on" experience with the world, a chance to be with other children and caring adults, and quiet time by herself. And she needs lots of time to play! Imaginative play is the single most important way 3 to 6-year olds learn, grow, and work out their feelings, fears, and fantasies. The more your child watches TV, the less she develops her own ability to entertain herself, and the less time she spends on all the other important experiences she needs to grow and learn.

(Center for Media and Literacy, 2012)