11:27 AM CDT on Monday, March 29, 2010
By KIM HORNER / The Dallas Morning News
khorner@dallasnews.com
Connie Prilliman has gone through life for 63 years without being able to say a word – until this month.
Prilliman was born with cerebral palsy, which limits muscle control. She cannot speak or type. She has communicated mostly by leaning toward the yellow sticker on her wheelchair that says "Yes" or shaking her head to indicate "No."
But earlier this month, Prilliman found her voice – through a computer that lets her eyes do what her fingers cannot. Read the rest at the Dallas News
I sent an email to the tvnz address in this post. My son had siimalr, although not as severe problems. Occupational therapy for oral motor and feeding was a godsend. My son basically wasn't using his tongue to guide the food when he chewed. He also was using a vertical chew rather than a rotary chew. If you pay attention, people chew kind of in a circle. My son was chewing like a puppet, with very little tongue movement. So his food was pretty much just falling down his throat, making him gag. She had me try to eat rice like this once and it totally made me gag. You also use your lips and cheeks when you chew. If you're not using those properly, it also causes problems. My son's feeding therapy consisted of oral motor exercises and Wilbarger brushing. No forcing. No conflict. No anger. It was amazing. He was trying new foods after two weeks. Done with feeding therapy after 2-3 months. Stunned. Just as a mom who has been through this, watching the video I see things that make me think that this type of therapy would be helpful for this young man. If you watch him eat, his tongue definitely isn't moving properly. You can also see his lips are very lax. If you watch him chewing from the side, it looks like he might be chewing vertically rather than in a rotary fashion. More smashing the food than grinding it. I gave my email address to them and asked them to forward it to the family. Hopefully it will get to them.
Posted by: Jane | November 28, 2012 at 08:51 AM