Tongue training is a technique used to encourage proper tongue motion.

Tongue The tongue is a muscular organ in the mouth of a typical tetrapod. It manipulates food for mastication and swallowing as part of the digestive process, and is the primary organ of taste. The tongue's upper surface (dorsum) is covered by taste bu ...

training is used to treat individuals suffering from

Ankyloglossia Ankyloglossia, also known as tongue-tie, is a congenital oral anomaly that may decrease the mobility of the tongue tip and is caused by an unusually short, thick lingual frenulum, a membrane connecting the underside of the tongue to the floor ...

(the "tongue tied" medical condition) and other tongue dysfunctions. It is important for individuals suffering from

orofacial myological disorders Orofacial Myofunctional Disorders (OMD) (sometimes called “oral myofunctional disorder", and “tongue thrust”) are muscle disorders of the face, mouth, lips, or jaw due to chronic mouth breathing. Recent studies on the incidence and prevalen ...

. Tongue training is a method used to teach the correct accent of any language.

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

is the only country to have legislated a state law requiring a tongue evaluation to be performed for each newborn as a

screening test Screening, in medicine, is a strategy used to look for as-yet-unrecognised conditions or risk markers. This testing can be applied to individuals or to a whole population. The people tested may not exhibit any signs or symptoms of a disease, or t ...

(“teste da linguine” under Law 13.002 / 2014).

Tongue malfunction

Appropriate motion and strength of the tongue are vital for eating, swallowing, and breathing. Tongue motion plays a fundamental role in the development of oral and facial structures, as insufficient tongue motion may cause many body malfunctions. Many tongue malfunctions are not diagnosed at the

newborn An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used to ...

stage, which can have significant consequences in later life, such as: *

Breastfeeding difficulties Breastfeeding difficulties refers to problems that arise from breastfeeding, the feeding of an infant or young child with milk from a woman's breasts. Although babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk, and human bre ...

* Palate abnormalities *

Colic Colic or cholic () is a form of pain that starts and stops abruptly. It occurs due to muscular contractions of a hollow tube (small and large intestine, gall bladder, ureter, etc.) in an attempt to relieve an obstruction by forcing content out. ...

Gastroesophageal reflux disease Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) or gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) is one of the upper gastrointestinal chronic diseases where stomach content persistently and regularly flows up into the esophagus, resulting in symptoms and/ ...

* Altered breathing patterns * Altered sleep patterns resulting in poor sleep quality *

Sleep apnea Sleep apnea, also spelled sleep apnoea, is a sleep disorder in which pauses in breathing or periods of shallow breathing during sleep occur more often than normal. Each pause can last for a few seconds to a few minutes and they happen many tim ...

* Swallowing difficulties *

Otitis Otitis is a general term for inflammation or infection, inner ear infection, middle ear infection of the ear, in both humans and other animals. When infection is present, it may be viral or bacterial. When inflammation is present due to fluid bui ...

/ Ear Infection * Impaired speech * Postural issues * Neck pain * Dental issues *

TMJ In anatomy, the temporomandibular joints (TMJ) are the two joints connecting the jawbone to the skull. It is a bilateral synovial articulation between the temporal bone of the skull above and the mandible below; it is from these bones that it ...

problems

Protocols

Historically, in many cultures,

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

s have performed tongue releases for babies with significant benefits. Various protocols exist for diagnosing and treating tongue malfunctions. The protocol depends on the caregiver's profession and the patient's age. Studies show that passive and active tongue exercises are required to improve tongue motion. Tongue training is an encouragement or

neuromuscular A neuromuscular junction (or myoneural junction) is a chemical synapse between a motor neuron and a muscle fiber. It allows the motor neuron to transmit a signal to the muscle fiber, causing muscle contraction. Muscles require innervation to ...

re-education, which helps strengthen

tongue muscle The tongue is a muscular organ in the mouth of a typical tetrapod. It manipulates food for mastication and swallowing as part of the digestive process, and is the primary organ of taste. The tongue's upper surface (dorsum) is covered by tast ...

. This is critical for a positive prognosis post-frenectomy. It is now standard that when a sub-functional tongue is diagnosed, even in infants, the caregiver recommends tongue exercises, before a referral for a

frenectomy A frenectomy is the removal of a frenulum, a small fold of tissue that prevents an organ in the body from moving too far. It can refer to frenula in several places on the human body. It is related to frenuloplasty, a surgical alteration in a f ...

, as well as after the procedure. This conditions the baby and the parent/caretaker, and begins to "fire and wire the muscles to help overall tone and strength” of the tongue. In addition to the standard tongue training

protocol Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states * Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state * Etiquette, a code of personal behavior Science and technology ...

for a diagnosed sub-functional tongue using methods and tools enable comfortable, pleasant and practical tongue training, lead caregivers recommend that each newborn receive a tongue training of two weeks accompanied by professional guidance.

References

{{reflist Tongue Physical therapy Strength training Speech and language pathology