Oral Sensory Activities to Help Kids with Extreme Picky Eating

This article provides helpful warm-up oral sensory activities to help kids with extreme picky eating. Affiliate links are included for your convenience. Integrated Learning Strategies (ILS) is a learning and academic center. As a reminder, ILS is not a health care provider and none of our materials or services provide a diagnosis or treatment of a specific condition or learning challenge you may see in your child or student. If you seek a diagnosis or treatment for your child or student, please contact a trained professional who can provide an evaluation of the child.

If you find your child or students are extreme picky eaters, they may need oral sensory activities to help with sensory sensitivities at mealtime.

Extreme picky eaters typically only eat a total of 10 foods and tend to stick to bland or colorless foods.  

Kids who struggle with oral sensory problems can be either hypersensitive to foods or hyposensitive to foods depending on their sensitivities.

Hyposensitive Eaters

If a child is hyposensitive to foods, they crave foods with strong flavors because their sensory system is often under responsive. You may find these types of kids enjoy intense flavors, textures, temperatures and sugar cravings.

Hypersensitive Eaters

Children with oral sensory sensitivities are probably more likely to be hypersensitive to foods when eating. Many of them avoid strong flavors, textures and like the temperature to be just right.

If you don’t know if your child or student’s picky eating is connected to oral sensory setbacks, you can test your picky eater to see what type of picky eater they are and if it could be related to oral sensory challenges.

There are also several oral sensory interventions you can try to help kids be more open to foods and to help awaken those oral sensory receptors for more success at mealtime.

Signs of Mealtime Sensitivities

Many kids who struggle with sensory processing disorders and one or more retained Primitive Reflexes also struggle with picky eating. Their sensitivities prevent oral sensory receptors from becoming more tolerant to different foods and textures.

As a result, you may notice some of the following signs:

• Child gags when they try new foods, watch people eat or smell strong aromas
• Avoids foods with different textures (slimy, sticky, bumpy)
• Prefers foods that are often bland in flavor (breads, chips, crackers, pretzels)
• Gravitates to sugary foods and may struggle with compulsive eating
• Must be fed before or after going to parties because they won’t eat the food at the event

These are just a few signs and symptoms, but there are many others that could tell you if your child is struggling with oral sensitivities.

Oral Sensory Activities

Recently, we had a student who experienced extreme picky eating and severe oral sensory sensitivities. His oral sensory receptors were so under developed that he could barely control the use of his tongue, jaw and lips by himself.

This little boy would eat before or after gatherings to avoid foods being served at events. He would also gag when moving his own tongue around in his mouth. Not only did he struggle with foods, but he had sensitivities to textures on his hands and body. This little boy also tested positive for retained Primitive Reflexes, which contributed to his sensory sensitivities. The combination caused him to avoid many things within his environment as well as mealtime.

Oral Sensory Activity Warm-ups

To begin awakening a child’s oral sensory receptors, there are a number or oral sensory activities you can do to help the child at mealtime. These warm-up activities can be done before or after mealtime to help strengthen areas of the mouth, jaw and lips while also providing the stimulation needed to help picky eating.

Before getting started, we recommend signing-up for our friend Alisha Grogan’s, MOT, OTR/L, free workshop The 3 Keys to Finally turn your Picky Eater Around to learn more about these warm-up activities, why they are important and how they can help with picky eating.

Tongue Clicks

One of the first signs of oral sensory problems is when the child cannot control the use of their tongue movements or may not have enough strength to hold their tongue in a specific spot. This is especially important for speech and language development. If the child can place their tongue on the roof of their mouth, you can then practice a few tongue clicks as an oral sensory activity before mealtime. At first, you may experience gagging or little noise when clicking until the muscles have been more developed. Let the child know it’s ok if they gag and to keep practicing. We encourage kids to do 5 to 10 tongue clicks as a warm-up activity several times a week before or after mealtime.

Tongue Waggles

Another warm-up activity is to help kids with tongue waggles. Again, we are working to strengthen the muscles of the tongue to help with chewing, swallowing and other sensitivities. Have the child stick out their tongue and touch the outside of their right cheek, switch to the left cheek, down to the chin and up top to try and touch their nose. Ask the child to mirror what you do or they can choose to do the patterns themselves. The child should hold the position for at least three seconds before switching spots. If the child struggles with this activity or gags, let them know it is ok (it is very normal) and you will continue to practice with them to help them get better. This activity can be done 5 to 10 times before or after mealtime.

Straw Puffs

This oral sensory activity will help the child strengthen the lips and jaw for better chewing and processing their food. In addition, it will also help the child get enough air from their diaphragm to support speech and language pronunciation and articulation. Provide the child with a straw and pom poms. Place a piece of tape on the counter and tell them they have to get the pom pom past the “finish line” with puffs of air from the straw. Place the pom poms close to the child and have them blow puffs of air into the straw to slowly get the pom pom across the finish line. Ask the child to slow down if they are going too fast or to use smaller puffs of air if they are blowing too hard into the straw. The goal is for the child to control the air and create more opportunities for them to get the pom poms across the counter. This fun activity can be done before, during or after mealtime.

Teeth Chomps

This activity is especially important for helping kids with oral sensory because they don’t often have enough strength to chew their food. Or, the child may need that proprioceptive movement and strong chomping sensation to provide the joints in the jaw with the “heavy work” needed to chew their food. Ask the child to first chomp with their front teeth (in the front of their mouth) and then chomp with their back teeth (back molars). Kids can do this activity for both the front and back teeth 5 to 10 times before or after mealtime.

Sucker Fish

Oral sensory activities like the sucker fish can help those sensory receptors in the cheeks, tongue and lips. The child has to suck in their cheeks in and hold it for three seconds before letting go. They can make a popping sound as they release the suction just like a sucker fish if they choose. Slow the child down if they go to fast. The child may also do this activity 5 to 10 times before or after mealtime.

Puffer Fish

With this oral sensory activity, we are doing the opposite movements of the sucker fish exercise. Ask the child to puff air into their cheeks and to trap the air inside their mouth while holding their breath just like a puffer fish. Hold the air for three seconds and then puff out the air loudly or forcefully to stimulate those sensory receptors. This activity can be done 5 to 10 times before or after mealtime.

Party Whistles

Use party whistles to activate the oral sensory receptors in the child’s mouth for better eating. This helps kids get enough air to support speech and language while also working the lips, tongue and jaw for different textures of foods. These whistles often require more air and stimulation for the party whistle to work, which is recommended over regular whistles. The child can do this activity before or after mealtime 5 to 10 times.

For more of these types of oral sensory activities, warm-up exercises and strategies to help kids with extreme picky eating, check out Alisha’s full Mealtime Works program.

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Integrated Learning Strategies is a Utah-based center dedicated to helping mainstream children and children with learning disabilities achieve academic success. Our services provide kids with non-traditional tutoring programs within the Davis County, Kaysville, Layton, Syracuse, Farmington, and Centerville areas. Areas to find Integrated Learning Strategies include: Reading tutors in Kaysville, Math tutors in Kaysville, Common Core Tutors in Kaysville, Tutors in Utah, Utah Tutoring Programs