Family Learning Center

Dr. Pamela Cooper, M.A., M.B.A., PhD.

Educational Diagnostician

Learning Disabilities Teacher-Consultant (LDT-C)

drpamelacooper1@gmail.com

Just think, how many times when working with children, they seem to always have something in their mouth or are always chewing on something.  How many times have you said to the same child to ‘take that out of your mouth’ or ‘stop chewing on your pen’ or ‘spit out that gum’ and perhaps to stop chewing on paper because it is dirty or chewing the paper will make the child sick?

Chewing on an item is a physical need not an act of defiance

Children are often asked to stop biting on their pencil, to remove fingers out of the mouth, stop chewing on paper, biting their nails, chewing gum, sucking their thumb and/or digits or to remove other objects from their mouth.  Some children continue to chew non-food items well past the mouthing/teething stage.  For some children, chewing is a passing phase while other children will always have a need to chew continuing into adulthood.  Thus, due to a psychological or physical need, some children have a written medical diagnosis or a school plan to address these needs. School plans may include an Individualized Educational Program (IEP), an Individualize Health Plan (IHP), Intervention Referral Service Plan (I&RS), or a Section 504 Plan with chewing accommodations; much like when a child needs to carry and drink water during the school day.

STRESS / ANXIETY:  The most common explanation for why some children chew is because of stress and/or anxiety.  Chewing provides proprioceptive input to the jaw that is very calming and organizing.  Chewing is why some children might bite their fingernails when they are nervous, pace back and forth, do deep breathing, tap their foot or suck the thumb/fingers.  Mouthing, chewing, sucking are self-soothing techniques; ways to cope with stress.

The stress children experience may be everyday stress, i.e., frustration, anger, inability to perform a task, change in routine, hunger, foster care placements, group home placements, homelessness, parentized, side-effects from a medication, tired (often lately from playing games on their computer/Chromebook in place of sleeping), etc.  Chewing will typically increase relative to the amount of stress and how well children deal with stress.

Chewing is an easy way for children to calm themselves because:

1.   It is a known motor plan (the ability to organize the body’s actions, knowing what steps to take, and in what order to complete a particular task). 

2.   There is always something nearby that the child can chew on, whether it is safe or inappropriate.  Example, some children are apt to chew on a piece of clothing, pencil, pen, gum, something picked up off the floor, etc.

3.   Children can control what goes in their mouth.

SENSORY NEEDS/STIMMING:  Chewing as a calming mechanism is especially true for children who have Autism, PTSD, Visual/Auditory Processing Disorders, AD/HD, and/or Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD).  SPD is also known as sensory integration dysfunction; a condition where multisensory integration is not adequately processed to provide appropriate responses to the demands of the child’s environment.

Children with sensory issues process the world differently and oftentimes it can be very overwhelming.  Lights might be brighter, sounds louder, touch can be painful, staring at them might become threatening, etc.  Some children wear a hood during class to meet a sensory need.  Some children put their head down within the arms to buffer light or sound and at times pull a clothing item over their mouth or ears. 

Stimming is short for self-stimulation. Stimming is one way that children with sensory issues organize themselves and manage the extra sensory information bombarding their systems.  Stimming is typically anything repetitive, such as flapping one’s hands, rocking back and forth, spinning things, repeating certain words, chewing, getting up to sharpen a pencil several times, etc.

BODY AWARENESS/PROPRIOCEPTION:  Children process the world around them through their senses, one of which is called Proprioception.  Proprioception is the ability to know where the body is in time and space, how to process input from joints and muscles to move and the position of the body.  A child that is struggling with body awareness and body position difficulties can appear heavy handed, over forceful, damage items unintentionally, walk into others while looking ahead or trips over or fall from chairs.  These children can display poor motor control, have the “wiggles,” unable to sit still, lack of focus, easily distracted, always have something in their mouth, and/or many other things. 

Children with poor Proprioception would benefit from what is called a “Sensory Diet” of activities to regulate their systems. Sensory Diet Activities are developed to independently meet each child’s needs and typically include some sort of Heavy Work activities.  Heavy Work activities are any type of action that pushes or pulls against the body – for example:

1. Cleaning tables
2. Carrying supplies to and from the classroom
3. Pushing a friend or sibling on a swing
4. Passing out and collecting papers
5. Lifting items from a shelf and stacking them at a different location
6. Cleaning windows
7. Vacuuming or sweeping
8. Push-ups
9. Swimming
10. Playing sports
11. Using weighted lap pads, vests, or blankets to improve body awareness and to promote a sense of calm.

If a Sensory Diet is not in place or if for some reason the child is not getting the right amount of Compensatory Proprioceptive Input at any point throughout the day, the child may try to self-regulate on their own. oftentimes children may try to self-satisfy through chewing because it is something that they know, have access to, can control, and it provides Proprioceptive Input to the jaw.

ORAL AWARENESS:  Some children have “Oral Hyposensitivity,” limited sensitivity and/or no sensation in the mouth. Imagine that for some reason you have decreased sensation in your fingers.  To compensate for the decreased fingers sensation, you would probably press on things harder, grip things tighter, maybe seek out things that are textured containing a lot of tactile information to them, etc.

Children with limited Oral Hyposensitivity Awareness may seek out activities that provide increased oral feedback, such as eating crunchy foods, stuffing their mouths with food, grinding their teeth, and/or chewing on non-food items.  

CONCENTRATION:  Chewing can be an effective way to increase focus and block out other distractions, especially since it is a repetitive movement.  Chewing activates muscles in the jaw down into the neck, which provides added stability that is grounding, particularly for children with decreased motor planning. Have you ever chewed gum during a test?  Or chewed on a pen cap or pencil while trying to concentrate on something?  If not, then odds are you know someone who did/does.

PICA:  Characterized by the need or craving to not just chew, but eat non-food items (paper, clay, sand, etc.).  If you suspect that a child is chewing in excess non-food items, inform the Parent, School Nurse, Counselor and/or Child Study Team Case Manager to seek medical attention right away.

TEETHING:  It is not uncommon to see children chew for relief when their 6-year molars start to erupt.  If this is the cause, it will likely pass when the teeth are done moving into place.  The average age for loss of these primary molars is 10 to 12 years, with children having at least all their first and second permanent, or adult, molars by 13 to 15 years of age.

G-TUBE:  When children cannot eat by mouth, they may still crave or miss the act of chewing.  These children are given alternatives to chewing food to help satisfy that need by chewing on a chew tool during tube feedings. A chew tool looks like that of a dog chew toy.  The school nurse generally changes feeding tubes during the school day.

BOREDOM/HABIT:  When a child presents as being bored, there is always something nearby that could potentially be chewed on, safe or not, i.e., pencil erasers, paper clips, tissues, etc.

What you can do to help:  Document your observations and notify Parent, School Nurse, Support Service Provider and/or Child Study Team Case Manager.  Remember, it is not that the child WANTS to Chew, it is that they NEED to CHEW.  Although sometimes biting or chewing can be behavioral, it is most often sensory-related.  As a result, telling the child to stop chewing is not going to work.  For one reason or another, the child’s body is telling them that they need to chew, and their bodies are adeptly listening.

Remember

Chewing on an item is a physical need not an act of defiance.