Music Together -Young Children & "Mouthing" Questions

Dear Parents,

In music class my teachers and I constantly see children- of all ages exploring the instruments and props by putting them in their mouth. I also see adults concerned about cleanliness, choking, virus transmission, or just plain not comfortable with their child putting everything into their mouth. Therefore I wanted to look a bit more closely into the reasons children do naturally put everything in their mouth and the following is what I came up with.

I am not a pediatrician nor a neuroscientist but I am interested in early childhood development and hope these findings might be of interest to you as a parent watching your child develop and grow. All percentages mentioned below are approximations of the size of area covered on the linked graph.

Disclaimer: This article does not come from our parent company Music Together LLC in Princeton New Jersey, and may not represent their views or findings.

Why do children put things in their mouths?

As an infant begins to mouth things it signals the start of their growing interest in the world around him (usually around 4-5 mos. and beyond). In the first years, children explore their surroundings through their senses--seeing, touching, hearing, smelling, and tasting. The more they explore, the more they learn.

While your baby is learning to master his hand movements--reaching, grabbing, and swatting--he's not yet so adept at using his fingers. So when a baby grasps what he desires and wants to investigate further ("Is it soft or hard? Can I eat it? Does it make a sound?"), this often means putting it in his mouth. I have observed infants 6-12 months use their hands simply as a means to get whatever they can reach into their mouths.

THE MOUTH HAS A MORE IMPORTANT ROLE TO PLAY IN EXPLORING AND LEARNING THAN THE HANDS DO AT THIS STAGE: If an adult is constantly deterring and preventing a child exploring things with their mouth, the adult may be circumventing the child's natural learning process. Also the skilled motor movement of the muscles of mastication, salivation, and vocalization are vital to our survival and therefore not only is your baby exploring objects while mouthing but ALSO exercising and refining these emerging skills.

The prevalence of young children's mouthing behavior should be expected because it is an integral part of the infant's early exploration of objects as part of the reach and grasp sequence. As reaching and grasping skills mature, children learn to explore their world with increasing hand-to-mouth activity. Within limits of cleanliness and safety, it should be praised and encouraged. The child is extending reaching behavior into mouthing, another way to explore.

Why is the mouth such an important exploratory vehicle?

Do you know how much of our brains sensory input comes from the mouth/jaw area? Looking at a diagram of the sensory cortex, (linked below) you can see visually that lips-teeth, gums, jaw, tongue and pharynx make up about 30% of all body parts represented. That is a much greater proportion than one might expect given the small size of our mouth/jaw compared to the rest of the body. Mouthing helps babies learn all about different shapes and textures. They also learn what feels good and tastes good, and what doesn't--so your child will only mouth a wool blanket once!

Did you know the thousands of nerve endings in our tongues are closely connected to the same part of our brains that governs fine motor control? Therefore when a child mouths things, s/he is also making important neural connections that aid in fine motor development. (It all starts around the same time as trying to master the "pincer grasp"). This connection between fine motor movements and our mouths lasts a lifetime - have you ever stuck your tongue out when trying to do some fine motor movement like screwing in a screw, or writing very precisely? Think of those jammin' lead guitar players that play with speed and precision - with their mouths moving funnily the whole time.

What about my older child?

Even children ages 3, 4 and 5 years will sometimes continue to put things in their mouths. This is simply nature still using the most sensitive and natural part of the body - at that individuals child's stage of development- to explore objects. This mouthing behavior however is not now their prevalent behavior and not as frequent as the mouthing behavior we observe in infants. With cognitive growth, the child learns more specific and complex ways to explore particular objects and mouthing eventually drops out in typically developing children. The child will grow out of it when he/she is developmentally ready.

In the following link look at this simple diagram to show both MOTOR and sensory (right brain) cortexes. Move your cursor over the mouth/jaw lip parts on each side of the figure to see the corresponding sides and proportions of the brain used above. Then move your cursor over the hands and fingers to see what proportion of motor/sensory stimuli THEY send to the brain.

Click Here

Note that although we obviously have motor and sensory cortexes on both sides of the brain to receive motor and sensory stimulation from each side of the body the diagram uses left and right sides of the body to make it easier for us to see the two different stimuli motor and sensory rather than trying to show both on each side of the brain at the same time which would make for a very complex diagram.

Looking at the motor cortex in the brain (shown in this diagram as left body/right brain for purposes of simplifying the diagram) one can see that lips, jaw, tongue and face take up a very large percentage- proportionally- of the nerve endings leading to the brain, and if you include mastication, salivation and vocalization as processes the total area uses around half of fall the nerve endings!! However, the hand, with specific divisions for each finger and thumb takes up ONLY another 30% of nerve endings for motor function. No wonder a child uses their mouth to learn about their surroundings.

Looking at the sensory cortex, you can see visually that lips-teeth, gums, jaw, tongue and pharynx make up about quarter to a third of all body parts represented (if you include the entire face it's even greater), while hand, wrist, and fingers make up another 30% as compared to the entire remainder of the body (including the arm, shoulder, head, torso, hips and legs, which large body area is covered by only the remaining small percentage. Even mouthing words, forming and making sounds, singing and finger play are indicated to be powerful for brain development (another great reason to have your child participate in music!). That's why music is used in various kinds of therapies so often.

Although mouthing is a positive experience for your child, you want to ensure his/her safety.

SIZE:To reduce the risk of choking, pediatricians recommend that children be allowed to play only with objects that are too big to fit all the way into their mouth. One easy way to check this is to make sure a toy or object can't fit through the opening of a toilet-paper tube. If it does, your child can choke on it, and the item is not safe. Also, be sure that an object is smooth enough not to scratch your child and doesn't have pieces that can break off. Take a few moments to do an inspection of your home at your child's eye level to identify any unsafe objects he may be tempted to put into his mouth.

CLEANLINESS:Your child is unlikely to get sick from an object that has simply been dropped on the floor; a little dirt never hurt anyone. However, if the object has been mouthed or handled by another person it may have germs on its surface. Please note that hand sanitizer and disinfectant spray are always available in Music Together classes for preliminary cleaning of objects that you hand to your child.
P.S.Doctors say the top ten ways to catch germs is... the ten fingers on our hands! Washing hands - adults and children's- is advisable before and after class.

Rowena Morgan, Director Music Together, Tri-Valley
March 2006

Music Together -Young Children & "Mouthing" Questions

Why do children put things in their mouths?

Why is the mouth such an important exploratory vehicle?

What about my older child?

Although mouthing is a positive experience for your child, you want to ensure his/her safety.

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