Outpatient Treatment Based on Self-Management Strategies for Chronic Drooling in Two Children

Drooling is a distressing condition, which is often caused by reduced oral motor control associated with a neurological disorder. It has significant medical, practical and psychosocial impact on children or youth and their families. Therefore, treatment is necessary. Although behavioural therapy for drooling shows promising results, it is generally time- and cost-intensive. For this reason, alternative ways to provide behavioural treatment for chronic drooling need to be explored. In a pair of case studies, the feasibility and potential of an outpatient variant of a behavioural treatment programme for drooling based on self-management strategies was researched with two children with oral motor difficulties. In a three week programme, these children were taught to perform a self-management routine in order to achieve saliva control during regular visits to the child rehabilitation centre. In addition, their parents and teachers were taught to prompt the self-management routine and instructed to provide additional practice at home and at school. In doing so, they were offered support by means of telehealth and personal contact. At the end of the treatment programme, both children showed a significant decrease in drooling severity. Their parents and teachers were satisfied with the treatment effect. Although the present treatment programme showed promising results, further adaptions are necessary to make the treatment programme more widely accessible.