Oral Rest Position: A Key to Strong Speech

Last week we talked about tongue thrusts; this week we’re talking about oral rest position (or oral rest posture).

If you’re thinking “What is she talking about?” — you’re in good company. “Oral rest position” is not a term most of us learned in school or discuss around the dinner table.

So, oral rest position is a fancy way of talking about how the mouth should be positioned when we’re not involved in any oral movement (like eating, speaking, chewing gum, brushing our teeth, flossing, making faces, etc.).

A solid oral rest position looks like this:

• Lips resting gently together (not apart or squeezed together!)
• Teeth apart
• Tongue-tip resting gently against the alveolar ridge, or the spot right above the back of your top teeth
• Breathing through the nose

On the other hand, here are some of the signs of improper oral rest position:

• Lips apart
• Lip strain with flattening or wrinkling of chin when lips are closed
• Accentuated “cupid’s bow” appearance of upper lip
• Flattened cheeks
• Receding chin (rather than a straight chin)

Why does this matter? Well, think of your oral rest position as the starting place for all speech sounds. And if our starting place is a little (or a lot) off? We may have some trouble making clear speech sounds. In addition, our oral rest position impacts how our face develops (look at the difference in the facial development of these identical twins).

In the next blog post, we’ll dive into some common habits (including thumb sucking and nail biting) that can impact our oral rest position.

Questions in the meantime? Reach out for a free screen! And if you know a fellow parent currently looking for support with their kiddo’s speech, please feel free to share this post with them. Parenting is hard; support is useful. 🙂