Friday 12 July 2013

Chewy Tubes – Great for Children with Autism

We know this sounds crazy but sometimes we get to meet rock stars. Not traditional rock stars, but people who rock our world. One of our rock stars is Mary Cushing. Mary is from the Speech Pathology Associates the inventor of the original Chewy Tubes, our most highly recommended oral motor product.





Chewy Tubes were originally created by Mary for a Jaw Rehabilitation program  to help build biting and chewing muscles for people who had strokes or low muscle tone. Since that time they have been used by all kinds of people and  autistic children.


We always recommend Chewy Tubes when a parent or therapist has a child that’s chewing or sucking on their clothes. The design is terrific. The handle has ridges making it easy to hold and the tube itself is not too long. The length of the chewy tube insures that the person will not gag themselves. If you have ever seen a kid gag on a mouthing product then you know why this is important- especially right after lunch! This is a major reason why we prefer  Chewy Tubes  over several other oral motor products.



Another great feature of the Chewy Tube is that it is a tube. The tube design really gives the muscles in the jaw good proprioceptive feedback. Proprio what? The muscles and tendons in the jaw get a good chewy work out! This is the only product that does this. We also often recommend the Grabber XT especially for VERY aggressive chewers, but the XT is harder and doesn’t offer the same chewy satisfaction that the Chewy Tubes do.

Anyhow back to Mary’s rock star status. Mary rocks because she saw a need and invented an awesome product to meet that need and we love that about her. It’s not easy to come up with something really good. Mary put a lot of time, effort and thought into what she created – and it shows.  Chewy tubes continue to help a wide variety of populations including children on the autism spectrum. So yay for Mary – you rock!

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