The widespread use of oral motor treatments (OMTs) to treat developmental speech-sound production disorders has elicited spirited debate among speech-language pathologists and communication scientists. Given the controversial nature of these approaches, there is an urgent need for some degree of consensus regarding the applications and limitations of OMTs. This clinical forum summarizes historical and theoretical motivations for OMTs, documents current clinical trends, evaluates existing scientific support, and identifies future research needs.

Learning Outcomes
You will be able to:

• describe common OMT procedures and their theoretical bases, and discuss relevant research
• list the rationales and educational practices that motivate clinical use of OMTs, as well as clinicians’ beliefs regarding these procedures
• describe the principles of evidence-based practice and evaluate OMTs within an evidence-based framework