Oral Therapeutic Tool for Speech and Feeding Therapies

The ability to move the tongue from side to side inside the mouth and chew or apply pressure on food is an essential skill for feeding therapy and development. Those abilities are usually called Tongue Lateralization. To put it simply, it is how we "scavenge" those left-over food particles inside our teeth, cheeks, the gums, and lips. It is also essential for toddlers to develop speech skills as well as eating and chewing skills. These skills include awareness, strength, coordination, movement, and endurance of the lips, cheeks, tongue, and jaw. However, many children find difficulty in performing these tasks, which often prevent their growth and skills development. Currently, many exercises and tools can help children with these problems. However, most of them have low quality, easy to break, and not user-friendly. For example, parents may give the tools to their child to practice, but they would not know if their children are making progress. Not only that, in some cases, it is difficult for a therapist to keep track whether the patients are actually exercising or doing it properly since they cannot be with them 24/7. Therefore, we develop a tool by integrating sensors and Wi-Fi- enabled microcontroller into a therapeutic tool and develop an algorithm to overcome the sensory issues which are related to the practice times so that it can give better feedback on the patients' progress. By the help of this tool, parents and therapists can monitor the patients' progress in real time and assess whether these exercises are effective.