Webinar | Bridging Oral Placement, Movement, and Speech Production

Children with muscle-based and motor execution-based speech challenges often do not respond to traditional articulation cues. They can look at the mouth, they can hear the sound, but they cannot produce. Although we only need adequate muscle strength for speech, our clients with orofacial myofunctional disorders, dysarthria craniofacial anomalies and genetic syndromes need a more tactile based approach. In accordance with recent research by the author and colleagues (Merkel-Walsh, 2025), oral motor /orofacial myofunctional therapy techniques should be paired with traditional speech therapy. This course was written with that in mind. This 2-hour course provides a practical, motor-based approach to treating dysarthria and muscle-based speech sound disorders using Oral Placement Therapy for Speech (OPT-S™). Participants will learn how to identify prerequisite oral sensory-motor, placement, and movement skills and systematically transition those skills into speech production. The course presents a four-part treatment session approach for bridging targeted oral placement and movement patterns directly into speech using tactile, visual, and verbal cueing. This considers pre-feeding, feeding, oral placements and articulation as these systems are intricately related. Early developing phonemes including /m, b, p, w, h, k, g, t, d, n/ are examined with attention to the jaw, lip, and tongue movements required for accurate production. Participants will learn practical strategies for progressing from oral placement and movement to syllables, words, and structured speech drills. Clinical video examples and a therapy-session demonstration illustrate the application of OPT-S™ with individuals presenting with dysarthria and muscle-based speech sound disorders.