Tongue strength: its relationship to tongue thrusting, open-bite, and articulatory proficiency

Maximum protrusive tongue strength was measured for two experimental groups of 35 normal speaking children and 21 children with frontal lisping, anterior tongue thrusting during swallow, and open-bite malocclusion, and a control group of 85 children with normal speech and occlusion who did not thrust their tongues during swallow. No significant differences in tongue strength were found among these groups. The findings were interpreted to support the view that tongue strengthening exercises recommended by some authors for the correction of tongue thrusting or associated frontal lisping may be superfluous.