Maximal Tongue Strength in Typically Developing Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Evaluating tongue function is clinically important as the generation of adequate pressure by the anterior tongue against the hard palate is crucial for efficient oropharyngeal swallowing. Research in the evaluation of tongue function in pediatric populations is limited due to questions about the reliability of children's performance on objective measures of tongue strength and the lack of comparative data from typically developing children. The present study examined tongue strength in 150 children and adolescents, 3-16 years of age, with no history of speech or swallowing disorders using the Iowa Oral Pressure Instrument (IOPI). Children as young as 3 years of age were able to tolerate the IOPI standard tongue bulb and were reliable performers on measures of tongue strength with an unconstrained mandible. Tongue strength measurements were elicited in blocks of three trials with a 30-s rest between the trials and a 20-min rest between blocks. Tongue strength increased with age with no consistent best trial across ages and participants. Males showed a slight increase in tongue strength over females at ages 14 and 16. This study suggests maximum pediatric tongue strength may be reliably evaluated using commercially available equipment and provides a limited sample comparative database.

Bulbar muscle weakness and fatty lingual infiltration in glycogen storage disorder type IIIa

“…Weekly speech therapy was initiated at that time and continues to the present. At age 8, quantitative assessment of lingual strength with the IOPI revealed a mean value of 10 kPa over 3 trials, consistent with severe lingual weakness [15], as well as mild dysphagia with textured food.…”

Development and Clinical Application of Instruments to Measure Orofacial Structures

“…According to Crow and Ship (1996), a reduction in muscle mass happens after 60 years of age due to atrophy and loss of motor neurons. Lambrechts et al (2010) included children, who had lower tongue strength than adults due to their stage of developmental maturation in muscle morphology and the central nervous system Potter and Short 2009). Moreover, the authors did not provide information about the qualitative evaluation of their participants.…”

Influência de altura, peso e índice de massa corporal na força axial da língua

“…Most research on the height and weight as determinants of muscle strength study the muscles of other parts of the body and not specifically the tongue ones (23) . Some studies have considered these aspects to basically perform the match between the surveyed groups, assuming therefore to be the responsible parameters for differences between groups (24,25) . Others have investigated the existence of correlation between body mass index and tongue force and reached different results (20,24,26) .…”