COMPONENT 5. FACILITATION OF ORAL-MOTOR PLANNING AND COORDINATION

Rationale: Current research supports targeting oral motor planning and
coordination. Many people who stutter, both children and adults, speak
with reduced articulatory movement, reduced jaw opening and increased
velocity of movement. Slowing the speaking rate while increasing
articulatory movement, facilitates increased spacing and timing of
articulatory movement which enhances fluency.

Research: 
 
Ingham (1984) - cited Zimmerman's studies which state that the
articulator(s) of the stutterer have a much less synchronous 
relationship during fluent and disfluent productions, than do the 
articulators of non-stutterers. 

Riley and Riley (1986) - support the inclusion of an oral-motor 
planning goal in therapy if warranted through diagnostic procedures
A 1983 study by Riley and Riley revealed that 87% of dysfluent 
children experience difficulty timing laryngeal, articulatory, and
respiratory events which support accurate syllable production. 

Riley and Riley (1985) - state that some children do not master
the necessary motor aspects of speech in time for normal fluency
to develop, thus requiring intervention.  They divide oral motor
coordination to include three areas: accuracy, smooth flow, and 
rate. 

Zimmerman (et. al.) (1983) - concluded that inadequate central 
processing capacity is the subsoil of stuttering.  They hypothesize
that stutterers are limited in their abilities to deal with the
relationship between motor speech output and it's associated feedback.

Activities/Techniques

 1. Activities for slowed speaking rate may be used to target this
    goal.

 2. Encourage and reinforce over-articulation during all speaking
    activities once the child has established a reasonable level of
    fluency.  If over-articulation is introduced too early, clients
    have difficulty focusing on both fluency techniques and 
    over-articulation.

 3. If the client exhibits severe groping and posturing behaviors, or
    other behaviors which may be characteristic of developmental 
    dyspraxia, more direct dyspraxic treatment may be warranted.