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 Oral Sensory Seeking Mouthing, Chewing & Sucking Behaviors: Sensory Based Ideas, Activities, and Exercises

Does your child chew on their clothes, toys, and other objects for longer or more often than other children their age seem to do?

Mouthing on objects is a very common way for young children to explore new things and their environment.  Most babies and toddlers do put objects into their mouths sucking or chewing on them – “baby proofing” your home will help keep your child safe, as most young children will put anything and everything into their mouths. 

Oral sensory seeking, which includes mouthing, chewing and sucking on objects after the age of two, is commonly reported alongside other issues such as sensory issues, autism, developmental delays and learning disabilities.

For children with sensory processing deficits, oral sensory seeking behaviors help with self-regulation. Chewing, mouthing, and sucking helps to self soothe and is a strategy that children use to help to calm themselves if they are experiencing sensory overload. 

This book, “Oral Sensory Seeking Mouthing, Chewing, & Sucking Behaviors: Sensory Based Ideas, Activities, Exercises,” written by an Occupational Therapist, include the following:

  • Introduction to Oral Sensory Seeking Behaviors

  • Sensory Seeking Mouthing, Chewing & Sucking Behaviors

  • Ideas for Kids Who Mouth, Suck, & Chew to Point of Concern

  • A Sensory Approach to Experiencing Taste, Textures, & Develop Oral-Motor Control

  • Food and Behavior Diary

  • Medical Assessment for Concerns

  • Choking Hazard Safety

  • Feeding and Oral Motor Control Components

  • Food Strategies to “Wake Up” the Mouth

  • Food Strategies for “Chewing Needs”

  • Food Strategies for “Sensory Alerting” and for Need to Crunch

  • Food Strategies for “Sensory Alerting” without the Crunch

  • Food Strategies for “Sensory Needs for Biting, Grinding, Pulling/Tugging with Teeth”

  • Strategies for Developing Sucking Strength, Coordination and Control

  • Make Your Own Olfactory /Smell /Oral Motor /Taste Sensory Box

  • Turn Gelatin into a Fun Activity: Sensory Taste-Testing

  • Planning & Developing a Sensory Diet for Children with Sensory Processing Concerns

  • Sensory Diets are “Kid-Designed”

  • What is a Sensory Diet?

  • Sensory Diets Help Address Sensory Related Behaviors

  • Reasons to use a sensory diet

  • Purpose and Goals of a Sensory Diet

  • Children with SPD versus Neuro-Typical Children

  • Planning for the use of a Sensory Diet

  • Oral and Sensory Diet input activities

  • Making an Oral Motor Sensory Box

  • Olfactory-Smell, Oral Motor and Taste Sensory Activities

  • Notes

  • Legal

Author, Judy Benz Duncan has been an Occupational Therapist for over thirty years. She has worked with children from infants to teenagers in numerous settings that included early intervention, pre-school programs, grade school, home health, developmental training centers, and sensory integration clinics.

Judy developed the foundation for designing therapeutic activities and tasks using interactive play and creative imagination to engage the children at a level they could easily relate to while working toward the achievement of their Occupational Therapy program’s functional goals and treatment plan

Judy attended the University of Florida, University of Kansas, and the University of Tennessee. She received New York State approval as a Supplemental Evaluator for OT with early intervention and pre-school students, and has helped develop and start an OT program for families and children in New York. Judy continues to stay up-to-date in the clinical field through mentoring other OT students and new graduates.

She continues to contribute to children, families and professionals everywhere through her professional writing endeavors which include writing books and manuals, managing the therapeutic website, TheraPlay4Kids.com, writing OT blogs and topic-specific articles, working on "interactive story play" book series, writing bi-weekly professional blogs for a pediatric orthopedic surgeon group, a psychiatrist, and an attorney at law. She continues to be an active mentor of new OT graduates, as well as OT students.