If you have been told you or your child needs myofunctional therapy, the first practical question is usually "what will we actually be doing?" The answer is exercises — short, specific, repeated ones — but not the kind of workout most people picture. Myofunctional therapy exercises are not tongue calisthenics for their own sake. Each one is training a habit: where the tongue rests, whether the lips stay together, how air moves in and out, and what the tongue does during the several hundred swallows a person completes every day.
This guide walks through the categories of exercises a program covers, how they are sequenced, and what home practice realistically looks like. One note before you read on: the exercises below are normally taught, checked, and progressed by a qualified therapist. Reading about them is useful preparation, not a substitute for an evaluation.
What These Exercises Are Actually Training
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) describes treatment for orofacial myofunctional disorders as working toward a specific set of goals: establishing nasal breathing, achieving a closed-mouth resting posture, building lip and tongue-to-palate seals, correcting the swallow, addressing speech patterns affected by oral function, and eliminating prolonged sucking habits.
Nearly every exercise in a myofunctional therapy program maps to one of those goals. That is the useful way to think about the work — not as a list of drills, but as five areas that each need retraining:
- Breathing — through the nose, consistently, including during sleep
- Tongue resting posture — tongue up on the palate rather than low or against the teeth
- Lip seal — lips together comfortably at rest, without strain from the chin
- Chewing and swallowing — a mature swallow that presses up, not forward
- Tongue and jaw mobility — the range and control that make the other four possible
Exercises for Nasal Breathing
Nasal breathing comes first, because it is the foundation. A tongue physically cannot rest against the roof of the mouth if the mouth has to stay open to move air. Common exercises include:
- Nose-only breathing intervals. Lips closed, tongue on the palate, breathing quietly through the nose for a set period — starting with a minute or two during a calm activity and building from there.
- Alternate-nostril breathing. Gently closing one nostril at a time to encourage airflow through both sides and build awareness of which side is congested.
- Humming. A simple way to keep the lips sealed and air moving through the nose at the same time, often used as a warm-up with children.
If nasal breathing is genuinely difficult rather than just habitual, that is a finding, not a failure of effort. Chronic mouth breathing driven by allergies, enlarged tonsils and adenoids, or a deviated septum needs a medical answer alongside therapy — ASHA explicitly frames airway establishment as interprofessional work involving ENT, dental, and orthodontic providers.
Exercises for Tongue Resting Posture
The target is "the spot" — the small ridge on the roof of the mouth just behind the upper front teeth. The tongue should rest there, with the body of the tongue up against the palate, whenever it is not talking or eating.
- Spot holds. Tongue tip on the spot, held for a timed interval. Short at first, longer as it stops feeling like work.
- Tongue clicks (pops). Suctioning the tongue flat to the palate and releasing it with a click. This trains the whole tongue to lift, not just the tip — ASHA's guidance specifically mentions tongue clicks against the palate as an awareness-building activity.
- Suction hold (the "cave"). Holding the tongue suctioned flat to the palate while slowly opening the jaw. The seal should hold as the mouth opens, which is harder than it sounds and builds real control.
- Spot-and-speak. Returning the tongue to the spot between phrases while reading aloud, so correct posture starts happening in the middle of ordinary activity rather than only during practice.
Exercises for Lip Seal and Strength
Weak or incompetent lips are why so many people sit with the mouth slightly open without realizing it. Lip work is quick and easy to fold into a day:
- Lip seal holds. Lips together, teeth lightly apart, breathing through the nose. Sounds trivial; is not, if the habit runs the other way.
- Button pull. A button on a length of dental floss held between the lips (not the teeth) while gently pulling outward, building lip closure strength against resistance.
- Water hold. Holding a small sip of water at the front of the mouth with the lips sealed for a timed interval — a favorite with kids because it is instantly obvious when the seal fails.
- Exaggerated lip movements. Wide smiles, puckers, and alternating between them to improve tone and coordination.
Exercises for Chewing and Swallowing
This is the group most people associate with myofunctional therapy, because it is where a tongue thrust is corrected. The classic exercise is the 4S sequence — Spot, Salivate, Squeeze, Swallow — which trains a mature swallow that presses the tongue up against the palate instead of forward against the teeth. Our step-by-step guide to tongue thrust exercises covers the 4S method and its progressions in detail.
Programs typically add:
- Swallow practice with water, then soft foods, then regular meals. Retraining has to transfer from a controlled sip to an actual dinner, so the texture progresses.
- Bilateral chewing. Deliberately chewing on both sides, with the lips closed, to balance muscle use and support a correct swallow.
- Saliva management. Repeated practice of the correct swallow with saliva alone, which is what happens hundreds of times a day and is where the habit ultimately sticks.
Exercises for Tongue and Jaw Mobility
Mobility work supports everything above and matters most for two groups: people with a restricted tongue and people with jaw pain.
- Tongue lateralization and elevation. Moving the tongue side to side and up to the palate with control, isolating the tongue from jaw movement.
- Jaw opening with the tongue on the spot. Opening and closing slowly while the tongue stays put, training the two to work independently.
- Controlled range-of-motion work for the jaw, used carefully as part of a plan for TMJ discomfort.
Anyone preparing for or recovering from a frenectomy will spend meaningful time here — pre- and post-operative tongue tie therapy exists specifically to build the movement patterns a release makes possible and to reduce the chance of reattachment.
How a Program Is Sequenced
Exercises are not handed out all at once. A program generally moves through three stages:
Stage 1 — Awareness. Learning where the tongue and lips actually are during the day, establishing nasal breathing, and eliminating any competing habit such as thumb sucking. Little strength work happens yet, because there is no point building strength into the wrong pattern.
Stage 2 — Skill and strength. The posture, seal, and swallow exercises above, practiced daily and progressed as each one gets easier. This is the longest stretch of a program.
Stage 3 — Habituation. Carrying the new pattern into real life — meals, sleep, conversation — until it holds without conscious effort. Sessions space out here, and the work shifts from learning the movement to no longer thinking about it.
What Daily Practice Really Looks Like
Home practice is usually 5 to 15 minutes a day, often split into two short sessions, alongside weekly or biweekly appointments. A full program commonly runs 6 to 12 months.
The realistic difficulty is not the exercises — most take under a minute. It is the consistency. Progress in myofunctional therapy is measured in whether a pattern has become automatic, and automatic comes from frequency over months. This is also why the work translates well to telehealth: sessions are about coaching technique and reviewing progress, not hands-on treatment, which is how online myofunctional therapy reaches patients nationwide. Adults often do especially well for exactly this reason — they can be consistent without being reminded.
What Exercises Alone Cannot Fix
Being honest about the limits is part of doing this properly:
- A blocked nasal airway. Enlarged tonsils and adenoids, chronic allergies, or structural obstruction need medical management. Exercises cannot open an airway that is physically closed.
- A significant tongue restriction. A tight frenulum may need release before the tongue can reach the palate at all. Therapy still matters — before and after — but the sequence is important.
- Established skeletal or dental issues. Myofunctional therapy supports orthodontic and dental treatment and helps protect the results; it does not replace them.
- Sleep-disordered breathing on its own. Myofunctional work is one component of care for sleep apnea and airway health, coordinated with a physician or sleep specialist — not a stand-alone treatment.
A thorough evaluation exists to sort out which of these apply before a single exercise is assigned. That is the difference between a program that works and a set of drills that quietly go nowhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exercises are done in myofunctional therapy?
A program works through five groups of exercises: nasal breathing practice, tongue resting posture, lip seal and lip strength, chewing and swallowing retraining, and tongue and jaw mobility. Which exercises you are assigned — and in what order — depends on your evaluation.
How long do myofunctional therapy exercises take each day?
Most programs ask for about 5 to 15 minutes of home practice, usually split into two short sessions. The exercises are brief and repetitive by design; the goal is frequency, not endurance. A full program typically runs 6 to 12 months.
Can I do myofunctional therapy exercises at home by myself?
Home practice is where most of the work happens, but starting without an evaluation is a common way to waste months. A therapist confirms your technique, sequences the exercises, and screens for the underlying issues exercises cannot resolve alone.
At what age can a child start myofunctional therapy exercises?
Most children are ready around age 7 and up, when they can follow multi-step directions and practice with some independence. Younger children can still benefit from habit elimination work and parent-guided activities.
Do myofunctional therapy exercises really work?
They work when they target the right pattern, are performed correctly, and are practiced consistently. What they cannot do is override an obstructed airway or a structural restriction, which is why those are ruled out or addressed first.
Are myofunctional therapy exercises the same as oral motor exercises?
They overlap but have different aims. Oral motor exercises often build strength, range of motion, or coordination for speech and feeding tasks. Myofunctional exercises target resting posture and function — where the tongue and lips sit, how you breathe, and how you swallow — with the goal of making a new pattern automatic.
Want a Program Built for Your Situation?
Generic exercise lists are a starting point; a program is a sequence chosen for what your evaluation actually shows. Schedule a free consultation with Laura Friedman, a Qualified Orofacial Myologist and certified speech-language pathologist — in person in Dallas or online nationwide — and find out which of these exercises you need and in what order.