Learn everything you need to know about oral sensory processing: oral sensory seeking activities, sensory diet ideas, calming benefits for picky eaters, sensory seekers and sensory sensitivities!
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Thank you to our sponsor, Chewigem USA. Chewigem USA provides a wide assortment of quality and safe chewy jewelry, which is perfect for oral sensory processing. So many kids with oral needs benefit from quick access to something to chew on like an inconspicuous piece of chew-jewelry!
Oral sensory processing can be one of the least understood parts of the sensorimotor system and sensory processing disorder.
But it’s a major factor in the development of feeding and eating skills, speech and language, tolerating daily activities such as teeth brushing, and for sensory seekers.
To learn more about the sensory system as a whole head to our complete guide on all things Sensory Processing!
What You Really Need to Know About Oral Sensory
There are three sensory systems that all receive input in the oral cavity or mouth:
1.Tactile (touch) – Orally, the tactile sense receives input when anything touches the lips, tongue, gums, and cheek. The tongue in particular has a lot of tactile receptors to give feedback on the way something feels or it’s temperature.
2. Proprioception (deep pressure) – The jaws can provide a ton of deep pressure input. Chewing and sucking gives lots of input to this sensory system. Cheeks can also respond to proprioceptive input while chewing, as they expand depending on bite size, and respond to food moving from side to side in the mouth.
3. Taste – The tongue has tons of receptors that allow it to taste various flavors such as sweet, salty, sour, and spicy.
Talk about a trifecta! No wonder so many kids have something oral going on! Since oral sensory processing is affected by three senses, your child could be over, under, or not processing any one or all of these sensory systems.
Again, this will be a unique combination for your child. For example, my son under-processes or seeks oral proprioceptive input, over-processes or avoids oral tactile input, and seems to fall somewhere in the middle range on taste with a slight preference to spicy and bold flavors.
Eating is one of the most common areas affected by difficulty processing oral sensory input.
You can find tons of information on “picky eating” by heading to Picky Eating and Sensory Processing, as well as How to Turn Picky Eating Around.
Oral Sensory Behaviors
There are some tell tale signs that your child is seeking, avoiding, or not registering oral input. I have organized these behaviors below into these categories, however this is just a guideline.
Some of the behaviors in this list may be indicative of other causes, especially when seen in isolation.
Under-Processing or Seeking
- Excessive or frequent Licking of various or random objects
- Excessive or frequent Chewing of non-food objects like shirt sleeves, bed sheets, wood, paper, crayons, pencils, toys
- Biting toys or people, especially when unprovoked or when overly excited
- Chews on inside of cheeks
- Bites or sucks in lip frequently
- Mouth or suck on various objects, pacifiers, or toys (Check out if your child needs to wean from the pacifier and if so, how to do it!)
- Loves very spicy, salty, or sweet foods
- Bites nails
- Prefers crunchy foods
- Grinds teeth
- Purposely stimulating the gag reflex
- Excessive messiness or seemingly unaware of food mess to lips and mouth during eating (past the age when this is considered typical)
- Stuffs mouth with food purposely, or holds food in mouth for extended periods of time instead of swallowing
Over-Processing or Avoiding
- Gags at the taste or sight of certain textures
- Dislikes brushing teeth
- Prefers specific texture of foods, either crunchy or soft
- Loves bland foods with little or no flavor
- Prefers foods smaller in size
- Avoids messy or mixed textures of food
- Prefers a certain temperature of food or dislikes extremes like frozen or warm
- Overly sensitive to mouth getting messy during eating
- Persistent picky eating despite general techniques to help
Low registration
- Seems to have difficulty chewing various foods
- Difficulty using a straw (*This is also commonly associated with poor oral-motor skills, which refers to coordination and strength of mouth movements)
- Drools and spits frequently
- Frequently spits food out of mouth while eating
- Food seems to accidentally fall out of mouth
- Loses track of food in mouth and as a result, will gag/choke on foods (*This gagging is different than I listed under over-processing. In this case, gagging doesn’t happen instantly, but after the food is in mouth. This type of gagging can also be caused by poor oral-motor skills)
My hope is that, with this information, you can start to think twice about some of the oral behaviors your child is exhibiting. Maybe you didn’t realize that some of your child’s quirks had an oral sensory motivation behind them.
Once you start looking at why they are doing what they are doing, it will change your response, which leads us to the last question… how can you help your child?
Supporting Your Child’s Oral Sensory Needs
I took a continuing education class once and the instructor said, “oral sensory input is the quickest way to get the sensory system regulated” when it’s dysregulated. That’s a big statement! We then went on to watch a video that showed a boy getting too much stimulation on a swing during therapy.
The therapist noticed and stopped the swing ride. The little boy immediately ran around the room desperately and obviously looking for something. He found a squishy ball and sunk his teeth into it instantly like it was a steak.
You could see the immediate release. I watched that video many years ago, but it had a big impact on me as an OT, and how I treat oral sensory input – with a lot of importance!
Oral Sensory Processing Activities and Tools for Toddlers and Kids
I encourage you to experiment with each of these activities as part of your child’s unique sensory diet and notice what tends to calm, alert, and/or organize your child. Check out How to Create a Sensory Diet (with a free template), to help you begin to set up a sensory diet.
My son, Isaac, using a Chewigem USA chewy necklace.
Oral Sensory Processing and Chewing Activities
Use these activities for sensory seekers that are often biting their shirt, pencils, or other people as a safe alternative:
- Crunchy Foods (raw veggies, pretzels, chips, nuts, hard granola bars, popcorn, apples, etc.)
- Chew or put vibrating oral toys in or around the mouth
- Chew on chewy jewelry or sensory chew toys
- Chewing gum (kids, younger than you may think, can handle this with proper supervision)
- Chewy foods (fruit leather, dried fruits, licorice, fruit snacks, beef jerky, bagels, marshmallows, raisins, tootsie roll, etc.)
Sucking/Licking Input Ideas
These are also great activities for seekers as they also provide a lot of proprioceptive input and can be calming and regulating:
- Sour hard candies
- Popsicles
- Thick drinks through a straw (applesauce, milkshake)
- Suckers
- Drinking from a sports bottle
- Ice cubes
Blowing (generally organizing input) Activities
- Blowing up balloons
- Blowing bubbles
- Whistles
- Harmonicas
- Party blowers
- Pinwheels
Oral Sensory Processing Input Activities
These oral sensory activities will stimulate your child, but it’s most beneficial if you take small steps for getting used to this input for kids with sensory sensitivities (more on this below):
- Vibrating oral toys to put in or around the mouth
- Drinking carbonated beverages
- Eat, taste or lick sour foods (grapefruit, lemons, pickles, Sweet Tarts, Lemonheads, etc.)
- Eat, taste or lick spicy foods
- Eat, taste or lick salty foods
Oral Sensory Processing Activities for Avoiders
- Slowly increase tolerance of a vibrating toothbrush
- Use a firm pressure when brushing teeth, brush cheeks, tongue, and along gums well, too!
- Play in a sensory bin! Of course, this isn’t directly affecting oral input, it is improving the tactile system as a whole and can have a dramatic effect.
- Explore new foods with no pressure to eat them. Talk about the foods color, texture, and smell.
If your child is avoiding oral sensory input, some or all of these activities may not be welcomed. However, the above activities can be broken down into small steps, and will help to desensitize the oral sensory input that is being over-processed.
In addition, any of the other activities can also be used for avoiders, but will likely need to be broken into very small steps they can tolerate.
On that note, as a reminder, remember to never force any sensory activity, your child should always be an active and willing participant.
Even better is when they initiate a sensory diet activity on their own! (Get a list of over 100 Sensory Diet Activities, for the whole sensory system)
And, if you think your child has some difficulty with how they’re eating, you’ll also want to check out oral motor exercises.
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Oral Sensory Causing Picky Eating??
Don’t miss our free picky eating workshop “3 Keys to Finally Turn your Picky Eater Around”. Learn how to tackle picky eating without losing your sanity, and help your child have a positive relationship with food for life.
Alisha Grogan is a licensed occupational therapist and founder of Your Kid’s Table. She has over 19 years experience with expertise in sensory processing and feeding development in babies, toddlers, and children. Alisha also has 3 boys of her own at home. Learn more about her here.
My daughter isn’t necessarily a picky eater but has sucked on her food since she was a little over 1 and still doesn’t it now at 2 years old. Sometimes she will fill her mouth and suck on it for half an hour and we can’t get her to chew or swollow. It doesn’t happen every meal but more often than not. How can I fix this this?
First, I’d be wondering, “Does she know how chew or is this a preference of hers?” Does she ever chew food, have you seen her do it? If not, then you’ll want to check out How to Transition to Table Foods, there’s some great tips in there. And, if she does, then you’ll want to focus on the sensory component and for that, I’d look at Sensory Issues with Food.
That should give you some clear direction!
Hi,
I was wondering what activities I can do for low registration?
Short bursts of vibration are great, think about vibrating toys/teethers/toothbrushes. If you use vibration for longer than 10-15 seconds it could cause relaxation, watch for his results.
Hi Alisha,
My 6 year Old daughter is constantly mouthing and chewing toys, objects, her hair, clothing and has in the past few months started spitting excessively, whistling and making clicking, buzzing or squeaking noises with her mouth. She also prefers to eat crunchy foods, actively avoiding cooked vegetables and other soft meals. Her teacher has told me that she is also whistling and making other noises in class. I am concerned that she is underprocessing orally, or has a hyposensitivity. I am wondering if it is worthwhile getting a referral to an OT?
I think if you’re questioning it, it’s worth getting the eval- then you know. You definitely have some valid concerns. I know it can be a hard choice to move forward, I have this post about sensory therapy from OT’s.
Thanks Alisha thank you.
Manel.
Hi Alisha,
Have a kido who is an oral sensory seeker who Chews on inside of cheeks,
Bites or sucks in lip frequently,Mouth or suck on various objects or toys,
Loves very spicy, salty foods,Bites nails,Prefers crunchy foods. On top of these he digs his floor of the mouth all the time by putting a finger underneath the tounge. Pls help. Need your advice.
I have seen some of these behaviors. It seems like he has an intense need. I’d do a couple of things. I’d try proprioceptive input in general, that could help indirectly. I’d also use some vibrating toys and experiment with different teethers. Some of these behaviors are dangerous, if he’s able to understand I’d work on teaching him alternates (like the chewy toys), constantly redirecting him.
I’m having a hard time locating a good fruit leather with high resistance. There are so many options but most almost disintegrate in your mouth. Do you have any good recommendations? p.s. i’ve tried leaving them out open or serving them chilled.
That’s a great question, I’m not sure of a particular brand. Although its candy in terms of consistency, stale old fashioned licorice works great!
This really a big help to me since my kid only eats same food over and over again…
Thanks so much Alisha
You’re so welcome Rebecca! Keep poking around there’s a lot of tips on Your Kid’s Table!
Hi Alisha
My child is 3.5 years old and eats very limited variety of food. He mainly eats dry items and gags/ spits on eating fruits and vegetables. I am seeing a feeding therapist since last 1 month who said he has sensory issues but not very major. He has started eating 3-4 wet items (vegetables/ gravy) at the clinic in decent portions in the last 1 month. However, he rejects the same items when offered at home by me. When i send him to a friends house, he eats those items there also. What can be the reason for not eating at home and how do i change that?
This so common! Its great that he’s making progress though. I’d really consider the pressure aspect of feeding- check out this article. Put that in place and in a couple of weeks I bet you’ll see changes at home too!
Thank you for your reply! I am waiting for the results to show at home as well!! But I understand not pressurising is best, and will try to keep it at that!
My son is 3.5 years old and appears to have some degree of sensory processing disorder. We had gone to OT and FT for about 2.5 years. Only things he can eat right now is formula and pediasure and we are currently working hard to transition him to a cup and that took a long time. We had GI examine him to eliminate any internal issues.
He seems to be afraid of anything new. And even after 2.5 years of therapy, all he can do is kiss and lick things like chips/cookies/crackers when task him to do, but he won’t eat any of it. He won’t use a spoon nor straw and tries not to touch anything he’s not familiar. He is either afraid or distrustful of food that’s not formula or pediasure.
How can I help him to transition to “normal” food as we only have two years before he attends school.
Hi Julie, thank you so much for your comment. I have worked with kiddos in similar situations before, I know how overwhelming this can be. You can overcome this, I know it isn’t an easy rode, but you can get there! First, I want you to see the menu bar and click on the “start here guides”. Follow the steps in that order, it will take some time to get through that- one thing at a time! The other thing I really want you to focus on is sensory bins, daily for 4-6 weeks. Search for my sensory bins post to make this successful. I know it seems like a small thing but improving his sensory system can make a huge difference, truly!!! Are you still in OT? Can you try a different therapist, sometimes it can be helpful to have fresh eyes and ideas. I hope this helps a little, keep me posted!
We have tried the sensory bins with rice and beans, we thought he graduated from that, but we’ll start with more variety. To tell the truth, after two years of OT with very minimal progress we forced him a cup with water and after few tries, he now drinks from a cup after realizing it’s not a big deal, but throws fit because he wants the bottle. He seems so stubborn or afraid to leave his comfort zone. We realize we shouldn’t force him, so we’ll go back to the bins, but even that was hard and only way I could coax him to put his hand in the bin was to put my smart phone in the bin so he would grab it and play it. I’ll keep you posted. Thank you.
Hey michelle see that sensory bins post, because I give a lot of tips that therapists use to get kids playing in bins. You’re thinking along the right lines, though. The fact that he doesn’t want to means he needs it:)
I have a grandson, age 8 who has sensory processing disorder and is ADHD. He has had speech and OT in the past and these therapies have really helped. He no longer qualifies for these therapies, He has some oral motor avoidance issues. The main one causing problems at this time is his mouth guard, which is required for playing lacrosse. He has just started this sport and is very good at it. He told me he does not like lacrosse at all for one reason – the mouthguard. He cannot stand it in his mouth for longer than 26 seconds. He knows his team will get a penalty if he does not have it in his mouth. He doesn’t have a problem brushing his teeth as long as he does not use tooth paste. He eats most foods and liquids. Do you have any suggestions for desensitizing his mouth so he can use the mouthguard?
Oh my gosh, I love that you are researching for him! This is a great question and can be really challenging. I am not aware of any specific alternatives. The best way is for him to break down his sensitivity, and also to give calming proprioceptive input. That is anything that involves pressure. I would practice at home to build up his tolerance, and try having him vigorously brush his teeth ahead of time and do some really physical activity, this is regulating to the whole sensory system. You could also try firmly rubbing his cheeks or even just cupping his jaw when it starts to irritate him. Of course, use distraction too while your building up this tolerance. I hope some of that helps!
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SLP here- Well done!
Aww, thanks so much!!! I really appreciate it!
Hi Alisha. Forgive my ignorance as I am not sure how to email you but I am replying to this article as a way of accessing your knowledge. I am very distraught and sad at the state of my 4.5 yr old’s eating habits. He had a very limited diet in terms of texture always but liked stews/casseroles, strawberry yogurts and baby biscuits and oatmeal with honey and banana so we managed to get pretty much anything into the casseroles to vary the diet but slowly he dropped off the oatmeal (so no more banana and honey as he only ate them mashed in) and the biscuits are gone and now the dinners so we are reduced to yogurts (only one brand) and milk. He stopped drinking water years ago and doesn’t like any other drink. He has been diagnosed with undefined sensory issues an is now getting food therapy( but this isn’t very developed in Ireland). However my food therapist is a very kind and understanding person who is not forceful and is open to trying things. She is primarily a Speech and Language Therapist. He will eat a very limited selection of plain milk chocolate and one other sweet type(kind of chewy marshmallow) and that’s it. I resort to these when I am desperate and that is everyday now. He refuses to discuss his eating with me when I try to sit him down for chat and gets very emotionally upset about being offered food. We were trying ‘the learning plate ‘ approach but I had to stop as he was getting very annoyed. He drinks lots of milk. This yogurt/milk diet has been going on for a month now. He has lost wait but still relatively healthy looking. He has had consistent sinusitus/allergic rhinitis since 1.5 yrs and was colicky as a baby. The therapist feels he has not learned to chew properly due to the soft foods he prefers. I have asked for referral to an Ear Nose and Throat specialist. I do feel it is impacting him. He has shown a willingness to touch and put about 3 foods to his mouth in therapy but not at home and will not actually eat them. He does like messy play but doesn’t like touching grass/sand much. He will touch foods but usually doesn’t want to. I am so worried about his weight loss and his recent dramatic decline in variety of food. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Theresa, I’m so sorry for the stressful situation. I can understand how draining and worrisome it all must be. I’m glad he’s in feeding therapy:)
I’m not sure how much you’ve poked around on my site, but there is A LOT of information on here. I also have a free picky eater workshop. In it I share three main strategies that I think are crucial for progress- I’d definitely pick a time to watch that. In the workshop you’ll also hear me talk about my picky eater course: Mealtime Works. This might be a good fit for you, because it’s my entire picky eater program with support from me inside a private group. No pressure, but I want you to know about it as an option. Either way the free workshop will have some great and important strategies for you. You can check it out here.