Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Washington State University Spokane, Spokane, WA, 99210, USA.
Dysphagia. 2009 Dec;24(4):391-7. doi: 10.1007/s00455-009-9215-2. Epub 2009 Apr 24.
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.
评估舌功能在临床上很重要，因为前舌对硬腭产生足够的压力对于有效的口咽吞咽至关重要。由于儿童在舌力量的客观测量上的表现的可靠性存在问题，以及缺乏来自正常发育儿童的比较数据，因此针对儿科人群的舌功能评估的研究受到限制。本研究使用爱荷华口腔压力仪（IOPI）检查了 150 名无言语或吞咽障碍病史的 3-16 岁儿童和青少年的舌力量。即使是 3 岁的儿童也能够耐受 IOPI 标准舌球，并能够在不受限制的下颌下可靠地进行舌力量测量。舌力量测量在三个试验块中进行，每个试验之间休息 30 秒，每个块之间休息 20 分钟。舌力量随着年龄的增长而增加，但在各年龄段和参与者中没有一致的最佳试验。在 14 岁和 16 岁时，男性的舌力量比女性略有增加。本研究表明，使用商业上可获得的设备可以可靠地评估最大的儿科舌力量，并提供了有限的样本比较数据库。
