Abstract
It has been well documented that many brain-damaged children, especially the profoundly retarded and the multi-handicapped, exhibit various types of abnormal eating patterns which mainly originate in the delay in development of the oral functions. An accurate assessment of the deviating eating functions and an efficient rehabilitational technique need to be developed for those children.
In this study, a method for evaluating oral functions in the feeding of handicapped children was developed and applied to the evaluation of 73 multihandicapped children with feeding difficulties in one of the hospital's living-in units. The assessment scale consisted of 1) developmental evaluation of lips, tongue and jaw movement and,2) evaluation of swallowing, chewing and tactile hypersensitivity.
Oral movement of the subject was video-taped in an actual feeding session. The assessment, except for the evaluation of hypersensitivity, was carried out later on by using the images on the video display. The following conclusions were obtained.
1) The evaluators were able to observe repeatedly the images on the display, so that the assessment became more accurate and objective.
2) The scale was practicable and contributed towards clarifying some developmental features, obtaining information about the functional relations among the different organs and evaluating the outcome of rehabilitational training.
3) Underdevelopment of the lip closing function and that of the movement of tongue and jaw were prevalent in the group.
4) The masticatory function was underdeveloped, showing that 84% of the children examined were unable to chew at all.
5) Tactile hypersensitivity is more prevalent in the face and oral area than in other parts of the body.
6) From a developmental point of view, it was believed that lip closing function was the key to the acquirement of other oral functions in feeding.
