STRAW #1-in the Straw Drinking Hierarchy
This is the straw with the widest use in speech therapy: for breathing (exhalation and inhalation), oral respiratory track exercises and lip praxis skills development.
Groups of patients: Children with breathing and swallowing difficulties.
The difficulty in drawing liquid through the straws increases as your child or client moves up the hierarchy. Straw #1 is the easiest, #8 is the most difficult. The hierarchy promotes jaw-lip-tongue dissociation. Straw is an excellent device for abdominal grading' training, lip protrusion and rounding, tongue retraction.
CE