At PlayStreet we find that Oral Placement Therapy is very effective in moving children with speech difficulties from non-verbal stage to production of sounds and also help children with feeding difficulties or food sensitivities.

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What is Oral Placement Therapy?

Read this blog to understand oral placement therapy.

How best can OPT be used to help your child?

In this blog, Shereen Idiculla explains how OPT can be used to help your child.

How does PlayStreet incorporate OPT into the program?

PlayStreet was the first clinic in India to start providing OPT services. Under the guidance of the Director, Shereen Idiculla, the speech therapists were trained and guided on how to use the oral placement therapy method to assure positive changes in children with any kind of oral sensory or oral motor issues like food sensitivities, feeding, speech production and speech clarity. OPT at PlayStreet is never done as solitary program but always in combination with a language and communication program.

When we realized that there were a lot of children requiring help but we couldn’t help because of distance, traffic, geographical location or cost, we resolved to devise a program that would help more children and parents irrespective of any of these factors. Hence we introduced an online program that would give parents access to goals, videos, trainings and meetings online, and support for 6 months to an year. In this was way, we were able to widen our reach and help a lot more families. We are grateful to all the families to trusting us with their children.

What Parents Say

The Talk Tools have helped my child to a good extent for learning to use the appropriate oral motor movements for different speech sounds. I have been using these tools with him for over a year and a half and he has come a long way from where he was earlier. Initially, he could not understand how to make mouth movements for a particular sound. Now, he has considerably improved. He also finds the blowing tools (Horns) interesting as they all produce different sounds.

Nandini
Mother to a 10-year-old boy with Autism and Apraxia

The OPT method has helped my child achieve higher milestones in speech despite his physical limitations. When we started this therapy about 5 years back he was not able to produce any sounds. Today he can form sentence and talk clearly. His clarity has improved tremendously. The simple techniques like blowing whistles, drinking from a straw etc., when used regularly have given wonderful results. All these were possible only because of your dedicated approach and the techniques you follow. We are very thankful to you for bringing Skanda this long way.

Ramya
Mother of an 8-year-old boy with Cerebral Palsy

My child was never really diagnosed with Apraxia. So when traditional speech therapy did not work for him, when ABA failed and he did not show any interest in sign language, we started on Oral Placement Therapy. Initially it took him some time to settle down. But with the tactile cues and the oro motor tools, it helped him start initiation of sounds. Whatever sounds he is producing today is the combined effort of the tools, the structured program and his effort. Talk tools with regular usage helped in building his muscle memory. He is now a lot more confident when he produces sounds with a tool or with a tactile prompt. His clarity has also improved.

Lalitha
Mother to a 10-year-old boy with Autism and Apraxia

My daughter had severe oro motor issues. He did not have mouth closure, could not blow or chew and also had drooling problems. Today after about 6 months of intense, very disciplined, mile stone based Oral Placement Therapy, he has mouth closure, has the ability to blow bubbles, whistle and importantly his drooling has substantially reduced. He is also beginning to show signs of chewing his food. We are very excited about this progress and are confident of even better results in the future. We would gladly recommend PlayStreet to any child with oro motor issues.

Shinjita
Mother to a 7 year old girl with Autism and food sensitivities

What Therapists say about OPT

I have been an OPT consultant for the last 4 years. In this time I have worked with children with Autism, Cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome and with Developmental Apraxia of Speech. Understanding how the oral sensory and motor skills interact and support placements for feeding and speech, has been crucial in my experience as an Oral Placement Therapist. It has also guided me to look at the whole body and not just the mouth, while addressing feeding and speech difficulties. This, with experience, I have realized is very important.

I have had very positive experiences working with children using OPT, both in improving Feeding skills as well as speech clarity. Apart from giving a very systematic protocol for working on the skills, the program because of the tactile component it brings in, is a great way to establish a connection with the child.

Anjali Manu
Speech and Language Therapist, PlayStreet