Evidence-based systematic review : oral-motor therapy and sensory stimulation as a treatment for feeding and swallowing disorder for children with cerebral palsy

Abstract

The study systematically reviewed the literature and evaluated the level of evidence of oral-motor therapy and sensory stimulation to treat feeding and swallowing disorders in children with cerebral palsy. The search resulted in ten papers that met the search criteria. Seven papers were selected by two reviewers. Four of the studies were randomised-controlled studies and three studies were nonrandomized clinical trial studies. Three types of therapies were described, oral-motor exercise, sensory stimulation and sensorimotor therapy. Each study was critically appraised by two independent reviewers. The overall level of quality of evidence was graded as “low-to-moderate”. There were few studies that examined the effectiveness of oral motor therapy and sensory stimulation. A majority of the studies were uncontrolled clinical trials with small sample size. The quality of the randomised-controlled studies was not high. Large-scale randomized-controlled studies with good study design is needed to provide further evidence on the effectiveness of oralmotor therapy and sensory stimulation for treating feeding and swallowing disorder in children with cerebral palsy.