First up are the line of chew tools, anchored by the Grabbers. As a mouthing tool, the Grabber is perfect for the mouth to play through jaw movement, tongue movement, and oral exploration. The material is chewy and resilient. They're made to help with oral defensiveness and food aversions by de-sensitizing the mouth.
ARK also makes a Y-Chew that is really similar. It's made to assist in oral exploration and to increase movement in the cheek, tongue, lips, and jaw. SLP's can use it to develop biting and chewing skills and decrease oral sensitivities to textures. I used these two items with one of my little preschoolers. We are working on chewing, swallowing and cup drinking. They are kid tested! And easily washed in the dishwasher! The Grabbers will be the first part of the giveaway! Have anyone on your caseload that this will work for?
Now lets get to my new favorite tool! The DnZ-Vibe is a small tool about the size of a pen. It vibrates with a twist of the end cap and can be used for articulation and oral motor work. For my caseload, I've used it like I usually use a tongue depressor, with the added bonus of vibration. The DnZ Vibe has a ton of different tips to make it work for a variety of clients. It's a great use of tactile input to teach individuals how to lateralize their tongue, elevate their tongue tip, make a tongue bowl, close their lips, learn a rotary chew, position the articulators for sound production, and various other skills. ARK has a multitude of different tips to go along with it.
The Cat-n-Mouse Tip Set was a big hit with the preschool crowd. The critters provided lots of opportunities for mouthing, sound production, and feeding. Both tips are designed with a variety of textures to generate different sensations within the oral cavity and around the lips and face. The reverse sides have many additional textures and "pockets" for the tongue to explore.
One of my preschoolers and I used this cute little dog tip to work on some bilabial sounds. I paired it with this book, so we could work on our /b/ sound for 'bug.' She loved the sensory input and we played on our lips a lot. I used another tip separately to model!
Sometimes getting their interest is half the battle and she was into it!
When she signed 'more' I had to give it back to her! The vibratory function was great for this client and the animals made it inviting and 'toy' like.
ARK's Popette Tip is designed to add vibration to the use of Toothettes and suckers in therapy. Just press the stem of the sucker into the Popette Tip, and you're ready to go. This is where I'm sure I will get the most use with my DnZ Vibe. It is taking my usual routine with the tongue depressor and sucker to the next level. My students working on /r/ this week were working on lingual placements with it and even volunteered to stay 5 minutes extra in speech to finish working!
So let's review what the giveaway options are!
1st giveaway: 4 different chew tools of your choice from the website
2nd giveaway: DnZ-Vibe plus an assortment of grab-bag tips
I'm trying out using Rafflecopter for this giveaway. Let me know how you think it goes!
I'm trying out using Rafflecopter for this giveaway. Let me know how you think it goes!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
ARK is also offering a coupon to all the Speech Room News followers! You can use the promo code: SpeechRoom15 for 15% off all orders through the end of March!
