A Sensory Approach to Experiencing Taste, Textures, & Develop Oral-Motor Control

A variety of food, kid-safe chewy items, and oral-motor exercises can be an easy way to give sensory and tactile experiences to the mouth.

Many children with sensory sensitivities have issues related to eating and drinking. Difficulties can be related to chewing, may be displayed as behavioral issues or outbursts, accepting and choosing only a few dietary or menu choices, or mouthing on food and non-food items.

Food and Behavior Diary

Before beginning making any changes to the current situation with meals and eating, start making a record for a week or two by making a Food and Behavior Diary. Having data to start with will be helpful later on.

What to Include:

what your child will eat (specific foods, textures, spices, etc.)
record how much of each food they will eat
when (times of meal times, grazing foods, snacking
in what situation (i.e., will they only eat chicken nuggets in the car, or with ketchup, do they pick them up with their fingers or fork, do they lick their fingers, do they have to lick them or smell them first, only eat in a specific spot, and any other information you can think of related to the situation where they may eat)
what happens when something changes
any gagging, nose running, behavior changes around food
any behavior changes when food touches their hands
what they drink during the day and what they use to drink from
if they only eat off a specific plate or bowl
was the child involved in playing with something during meal time
observe if they chew up the food or swallow chunks of food
what happens when new food is presented
if they are able to sit in a crowded dining hall or restaurant
if they eat with their mouth open or with lips closed
if they lick, smell, or taste their food before placing in their mouth
if they let their food touch on the plate, if they take a bite where more than one food item is on the fork or spoon, or if they smash everything together all at once
any other information that you would like to keep track of

Medical Assessment for Concerns

Having a checkup and evaluation by your child’s primary doctor / pediatrician, can rule out any medical issues, state of health, dietary issues, mouth or tooth pain that may need to be addressed.

If you have serious concerns about your child’s eating habits, it is always a good idea to consult with your pediatrician to rule out medical or oral-motor structural problems, consult with a dietitian/ ST/ feeding therapist, as well as discuss your concerns with your child’s service providers.

Choking Hazard Safety

Always be aware that foods, not normally though of a hazard, that can result in a choking incident – for example, a food, such as a bagel, which is not normally thought of as a choke hazard, can become one when a child who is unfamiliar and inexperienced with knowing how much to bite off, how to move the thick chewy piece around in their mouth, or not being able to feel where the food is in their mouth, not knowing how much is “too much” to have in their mouth, or how to effectively chew up before swallowing the whole chunk of bagel.

There are many foods that are common choke hazards (grapes, hot dogs, tough chunks of food, hard candy, and so on), but be alert for any issues your child may be having, especially with new or unfamiliar foods. Cut up items as prudent to help prevent any choking incidents!

Feeding and Oral Motor Control Components

While there are more components that make up self feeding and food acceptance, this article is focusing on those areas that may most directly influence the oral-motor aspect. These 4 sensory areas follow:

Tactile Sense / Touch

These components include touching the food with hands, body or face in order to get the food from the table/plate/bowl to the child’s mouth, if using utensils or fingers the child will feel the weight of the food, the texture of the food (in mouth or in hand), the shape of the food (slices, chunks, strips, etc.), how the food “feels” when chewed, moved around in the mouth, or on the tongue

Olfactory Sense / Smell

These components include how the food smells, how the smells from different foods intermingle, if certain foods make a child’s nose itch or eyes water, if certain smells cause gagging, if some smells cannot be tolerated by the child.

Gustatory Sense / Taste

These sensory tolerance components include how the food or drink tastes once it goes into the mouth, how the food tastes when licked, if the child thinks it will taste a certain way and then discovers it is not what they were thinking it would be like, acceptance of different spices and flavors

Proprioception and Oral Motor Awareness

This may be a “sense” that many do not think about but includes the ability to know how full the mouth is, how much force is needed to chew food properly, how to maneuver the food from one side of mouth to the other, how to move the tongue out of the way to prevent biting oneself, where to place the food into the mouth to prevent any gag reflex or to improve acceptance of food into the mouth, how to achieve good lip closure to help keep food and liquids in the mouth

Planning for Sensory Approach to Feeding

Discuss and plan this with your child’s services providers, as the best choice is in-person evaluation and assessment in order to meet your child’s needs. In order to address your child’s needs, evaluate for the outcomes you are looking for, and for direct guidance and direction through the entire process, it is extremely important to discuss and plan with your OT/PT/ST and service providers before starting out with a sensory dietary approach and plan for your child.

Food Strategies to “Wake Up” the Mouth:

Cold food can be useful to ‘wake up’ your mouth before you eat something else.

Popsicles

Fruit juice frozen into mini ice cubes

Frozen grapes or berries

Frozen bananas

Frozen peas, carrots, corn

Ice drinks

Ice chips

Frozen yogurt bites

Food Strategies for “Chewing Needs”

Jerky snacks

Meat sticks

Hard cheese or string cheese

Cereal bars

Thick and chewy bread

Dried fruit

Banana Chips

Chewy sweets (gummy bears, Swedish fish, etc)

Chewy candy like Tootsie Rolls or Caramels

Marshmallows

Toffee bars

Chewing gum

Bagels

Food Strategies for “Sensory Alerting” and for Need to Crunch:

Crunchy food

Raw vegetables

Hard taco shells

Celery

Waffle Cones

Fruit slices

Bread sticks

Dry cereal

Toast (extra toasted for crunch)

Dried veggie chips (sweet potato)

Cheerios

Cheese Puffs

Cheetos (crunchy)

Peppers

Arrowroot cookies

Cheesy Crackers

Fiber Crackers

Animal Crackers

Goldfish

Rice Cakes

Snap peas

Cucumber slices

Nuts

Crackers

Popcorn

Food Strategies for “Sensory Alerting” without the Crunch:

Spicy food

Hot salsa

Cinnamon cereal

Pickles

Olives

Chili or Mexican food

Sour fruits or juices (lemons, limes, grapefruit)

Food Strategies for “Sensory Needs for Biting, Grinding, Pulling/Tugging with Teeth”

Liquorice

Straws

Chewy toys designed to improve jaw strength (Chewy Tubes)

Fruit bars

Fruit roll-ups

Toffee bars

Water bottles with ‘sports tops

Fresh fruits and vegetables

Developing Sucking and Blowing Oral Motor Muscles

Sucking and blowing activities and exercises can help develop a child’s oral-motor muscles without having to deal with eating / chewing / feeding at the same time.

Strategies for Developing Sucking Strength, Coordination and Control:

Use longer, curly, thinner straws or bundles of straws

Use twisty straws

Use a straw to drink yoghurt

Use a straw to drink fruit puree

Use a straw to drink fruit smoothies - an easy one to grade the consistency

Sucking frozen fruit or ice cubes

Lollipops

Hard sweets

Water bottles with ‘sports tops’

Strategies for Developing Oral Motor Control and Strength for Blowing:

Blowing bubbles using a straw in a cup/bowl

Blowing bubbles in drinks

Blowing bubbles

Musical instruments (horns, harmonica, kazoo, etc)

Blow a whistle

With straw or mouth, blow light items across the table (cotton balls, popped corn, paper or feathers)

Blow up balloons

Make Your Own Olfactory /Smell /Oral Motor /Taste Sensory Box

Sensory Boxes can be kept in a shoe-box, a plastic container with lid, a tackle box, a lunch box, and so on. You can mark each type of box with the child’s name, type of box, place a photo of the child on or in the box if you so choose, or let the child decorate their sensory box.

If your child withdraws or becomes overwhelmed with any of the activities or media presented, move on to something else! Your child may only tolerate one or a few of the ideas suggested – remember it’s trial and error and giving your child some control over what they will work with will help in preventing sensory overload.

Items that may be included in an olfactory and oral motor sensory activity box include:

o Essential Oils (explore a child’s acceptance and personal choice)

o Child safe chewables / oral motor chewies

o Candles (not burning) to smell

o Spices and herbs (use with close supervision and good judgment)

o Blindfold (if they will tolerate) for game of identifying smell

o Tasting game (is it sweet, sour, spicy, salty, cold, warm, crunchy, chewy, lumpy) where they may try new foods and textures as part of the “game”

o Bubbles to blow in different sized and shaped bubble wands

o Blow bubbles through a straw

o Straws -Try to suck thick shake or yogurt through a straw (short straw, curly straw, wide straw, etc.)

o Child-safe scented lotions and sprays

Turn Gelatin into a Fun Activity: Sensory Taste-Testing

Never force a child to touch or feel something they find overstimulating or distressful. Work with what is tolerated and try to expand from there.

Begin with less challenging textures and work up towards new and more challenging textures (from firm and dry to wet and sloppy/messy). Give control on what they will touch, if they will only look at, and for how long to your child.

Let them stop when ready – not when you feel it is time to stop.

The variety of activities and ideas provided here are by no means the only things you can try - personalize, adjust, and modify to fit your lifestyle, and your child’s needs and abilities.

1. Mix up some gelatin (one color, or a variety) and when it is cooled but not set, let your child drop in small plastic or rubbery toys

2. Once the gelatin sets, have your child dig in to remove all of the items; have them use a spoon or fork if they cannot tolerate touching the gelatin - Play “find the treasure” with the set gelatin

3. Since it is edible encourage your child to lick their fingers or even take small bites

4. Try different colors and flavors

5. Try dropping in some small cut-up pieces of fruit or vegetables instead of non-edible items and see if they may take a taste as they pull them out of the gelatin

6. Use molds, small cups or containers, construction blocks, etc to pour gelatin in to form shapes, different sized pieces

7. Drop gelatin chunks into a small basin of water for water play - let your child break them up by squeezing, poking, squishing the pieces in the water bath

8. Pour gelatin into a shallow layer onto a rimmed cookie sheet or large rectangular baking dish - once set, let your child use cookie cutters to make shapes; Fun to cut, pull out, and then eat!

9. Let your child use utensils if they do not want to touch the gelatin; let them cut the blocks up into slices or cubes with supervision; let them try and cut them up using safety scissors if they will (use of 2 hands and touching!)

10. Supervise for choking hazards at all times!

11. If you keep for any reason, refrigerate and then only keep for a day or two

Use the suggestions given as a “springboard” to coming up with more ideas you can try.

Giving your child variety, exposure, change, and experience are ALL growth and learning opportunities.

Stay Calm, Have Fun, and Keep Supporting Your Child!

02/15/2021