Oral myofunctional training trial for Clinical Evidence-Learning disabilities

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26590265
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Special needs education
• Research Institution: Sanyo Gakuen University
• Principal Investigator: KAMIJI REIKO 山陽学園大学, 総合人間学部, 准教授(移行) (40353106)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): Ide Tomomi 九州大学, 大学病院, 講師 (90380625)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: ダウン症 / 知的障害 / 発達障害 / 口唇閉鎖力 / 口腔周囲筋 / 療育

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Children with Down syndrome are often associated with intellectual disability with perioral hypotonicity as well as poor muscle tonus.
We undertook oral myofunctional training.We observed an improvement in Kyoto Scale of Psychological Development 2001 only in children who achieved daily training averagely 3 times or more, and there was a positive correlation between training frequency and language development in the Mitsuba Language Developmental Test. The parents reported other favorable changes in children with the training, such as alleviation of eating and swallowing, following the indications from adults, walking stabilization, enrichment in facial expressions, and staying cold-free.Based on these results, we concluded that oral myofunctional training promotes language development and the frequency of the training (more than twice a day) is important to obtain the benefit.

Free Research Field

臨床心理学