Promoting mouth-drying responses to reduce drooling effects by persons with intellectual and multiple disabilities: a study of two cases

Addition of Kinesio Taping of the orbicularis oris muscles to speech therapy rapidly improves drooling in children with neurological disorders

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the effects of Kinesio Taping (KT) of the orbicularis oris muscles as an adjunct to standard therapy for drooling.

METHODS

Fifteen children with neurological disorders and drooling received speech therapy and twice-weekly KT of the orbicularis muscles over a 30-day period. Drooling was assessed by six parameters: impact on the life of the child and caregiver; severity of drooling; frequency of drooling; drooling volume (estimated by number of bibs used); salivary leak; and interlabial gap. Seven markers of oral motor skills were also assessed.

RESULTS

KT of the orbicularis oris region reduced the interlabial gap. All oral motor skills and almost all markers of drooling improved after 15 days of treatment.

CONCLUSION

In this sample of children with neurological disorders, adding KT of the orbicularis oris muscles to speech therapy caused rapid improvement in oral motor skills and drooling.

Generalization and maintenance of a self-management program for drooling in children with neurodevelopmental disabilities: A second case series

In this case series (n = 10) with a non-concurrent multiple baseline design, a self-management program was shown to be effective during inpatient training in eight participants with oral-motor problems and normal intelligence or mild intellectual disabilities. They were taught to perform a self-management routine and to remain dry for increasing time intervals. In addition, the program provided differential (self-) reinforcement of swallowing, controlling and wiping behavior, explicit formulation of motivational factors, instruction and feedback for parents and teachers, and continued practice after discharge. Generalization of the initial effect to the school setting was demonstrated in seven participants. Follow-up assessments demonstrated maintenance of positive results in four children up to 24 weeks, and for two other participants until 6 weeks after discharge. These results appeared to be relevant to parents and teachers. Teaching parents and teachers to implement the procedure enables them to support the child without professional supervision in the case of relapse.