Ming explains why kids mouth objects: sensory exploration or altered oral sensitivity, which responds to desensitization exercises, or habituated behavior that needs replacement with safe chewables and fidget toys. Both require different strategies to fade the habit.
Hey, this is Ming from agentsofspeech.com today we're going to talk about why your child keeps putting things into their mouths. Okay. The first reason is sensory issues. And I'm sure you've heard of this before. So children typically stop mouthing. That's the word for it. They stop mouthing at the latest one and a half years old. There are studies that say that it stops earlier. And it's just that how children use to explore the world before. Before their fingers get better, they start putting things in the mouth to, like, use it as a way to manipulate the item. Right. They put it so that they can use things and it's like as their fingers get better, the hands get better, fine motor gets better. They stop doing it because they can feel better with their hands. Right. So it's a sensory issue going on. It might be, might not be. But you have to check some of the questions that we ask at the clinic and also online. Now, is there a problem with brushing your child's teeth? Right. Is it, like really sensitive, number one, or is that. That they really like it? They really like the sensation there. Right. You have to look into it and see which one it is. Okay. And sometimes there's going to be a mix. There are parts where inside the mouth, there's parts where it's a little bit too sensitive, the parts where they're totally numb to it. So it's a mixed sensitivity. A lot of times, if it is a sensory issue, and this is just from my experience, I'm just telling you, if you want to know how we usually check it out, you can check out the sensory stuff. I have it recorded inside of www.anxiousnfspeech.com course we have this, like, course called speech disorder crash course. And I demonstrate how to use and normalize the sensory issues there. So you can try that and do it there. Okay. Number two is that it's a habituated response. What does that mean? Is that they do something so much that becomes a habit. So a lot of times, you know, see people who, like, bite their nails, it happens so much because it's just a habit. It becomes subconscious that they're doing it. And that's my wife, by the way. She would bite her nails all the time. And then what we can do is to create a replacement for them, for her. And what would work is like, you can get a fidget toy, you can get something to reduce that. And for children who are mouthing, right, it would be to give them something that's appropriate to put in the mouths, which would be just a snack or just a tooth set or like a chewy tube, that kind of thing. Is it totally acceptable and appropriate? No, but at the same time, it's a step towards what is appropriate. Okay? So what we can do is like we can give them something that is slowly replacing that behavior and moving it towards something else. And replacement is the key word here. Because the need for the sensory, the need for doing something that the routine and habit do, something will never go away. So for instance, someone smokes, right? Why do they smoke? There's a lot of reasons why. It's not just like addiction or whatever. It's all stress related. And it's also because they want something to do and have no. You know, I don't know what happens when people smoke. I'm just giving you an example. But then what I can tell you is that there's a step by step formula to getting rid of it is to have replacement behaviors like snacking on like some biscuits, having nicotine patches, having a meditation time, you know, all these things will help get to the real cause and also help them get rid and find the replacement behavior. So knowing these two things, these are the two reasons why children put things in their mouths, right? So what can you do? So the first thing is to get rid of the sensory issues. We call it desensitization or normalize or whatever you like to call it. You can follow the steps I talked about in our community and our courses. Check that out and try it out there, right? The second thing is like to think about how to reduce this habit. So back to the biting finger thing. My wife realized if she does her nails, she won't bite it anymore. That's just something that removes the ability of that. We're not going to shut your child's mouth, right? Because what happens when you do that? The behavior jumps to a different thing. So for my wife, it goes to like playing with her hair and biting the ends of her hair and stuff. So you have to remember, you get, you stop a behavior, the behavior jumps into a different thing. So you have to give them a suitable replacement for that. And so my, my recommendation is to find something that's appropriate for them to put inside of the mouth. Okay. For now. And slowly remove that and think about how to reduce that. Slowly, slowly, okay. And everyone's different. I cannot just give you a cookie cutter, which response here. And what I usually see is that if we deal with the sensory issues, I mean slowly fade out the replacement behavior, it usually works. Okay. So anyways, if you need more help about this and you want to ask other parents who have been through this, very easy, just go to ww.agentsofspeech.com we have a community of parents and professionals there. There's like 10,000 people inside now. So if you go down, go inside there, ask a question, check it out, search inside of a community. We have a bunch of free courses, too, just for you to learn the basics of speech therapy and behavioral management. Go there and you won't be disappointed. All right, that's all for this week. Thank you so much for checking it out. And I'll see you in the next one. Bye.
