Child Rejects the Toothbrush? Speech Therapist on Oral Sensitivity
►► Start teaching your child at home. Download my FREE home therapy checklist→ https://www.agentsofspeech.com/checklist
Tactile Defensiveness
Your child’s mouth might be more sensitive than you and I. And because of that, s/he may have gotten bad experiences from brushing teeth. This is when children develop a sense of tactile defensiveness. It means that children are aware of what the toothbrush might do to them. Even if there’s a chance that it would actually be ok, children would not take the chance and reject the toothbrush. When this happens, children would evade any advances, run away at the sight of toothbrushes or push away the toothbrush.
Desensitizing the toothbrush
You can allow the child to brush her teeth. Showing him/her what it looks like from your perspective. Also allows you to demonstrate that it doesn’t hurt you. After that, you should slowly advance the toothbrush closer and closer to the mouth. Start by asking the child to touch the toothbrush with his/her hands. Slowly move up the arm and towards the neck. Touch his/her face with the toothbrush and then move on to the lips. Finally, get to the mouth and start brushing.
Rewarding good behaviour
Every time you advance closer to the child’s mouth, remember to reward that tolerance. You can use toys, screentime, drinks, food or whatever your child likes. Make sure it’s a great experience. No pulling, holding or pinning down. That only makes it trauma and it’ll be hard to come back from.
Real-life example
The above method works for other things as well, such as haircuts. We’ve used this methods loads of times, we’ve outlined the method in full detail inside of our “Full Introduction Course for Parents”.
A child who tried this process, however, could not take the toothbrush sensation even if the parent bought the softest brush out there. The only thing she could accept was the teeth cleaning wipes for babies. So we wrapped the wipes around the toothbrush and went through the whole sequence again. Each time exposing more and more of the toothbrush. This worked in the end and now they use the toothbrush every day.
Watch video Child Rejects the Toothbrush? Speech Therapist on Oral Sensitivity online without registration, duration hours minute second in high quality. This video was added by user Agents of Speech 13 April 2022, don't forget to share it with your friends and acquaintances, it has been viewed on our site 982 once and liked it 43 people.