How to Teach straw cup drinking
By Amanda Kyle, MA, CCC-SLP
Progression to straw cup drinking can be very handy, especially because it places kids in a better position for safe swallowing (it facilitates a chin tuck position, which is airway protective), and is a readily available way for kids to drink while they are out and about. But how in the world do you teach a child to drink from a straw? Here are a couple of ideas!
Use the straw as a pipette.
Do this by placing the straw in liquid, covering the end of the straw with your finger and removing from the glass. When you remove your finger, the liquid will come out. You can begin to offer your child the end of the straw, and when they place their mouth over the straw, give them a drop of liquid (start with a tiny amount! We don’t want this to be overwhelming). After a few turns, add a longer pause, waiting until they touch their lips to the straw before giving the liquid.
At first, a lip touch might be accidental – and that’s ok! Still provide the liquid. Then, continue to hold that pause until lip closure is achieved. Once they get good at closing their lips around the straw, begin moving your hand down when presenting it. On first presentations, your hand will be about the level of their eyes. Then move your hand straight out from their face, so the straw extends straight out from their mouth, and then finally, move to chest level so the straw is pointed downward, like it would be in a cup. This will also add a gravitational force helping them begin to need to suck to obtain the liquid. Once they have this down, you can try offering the straw in a cup of liquid.
Offer a pump style cup.
The most popular option is the honey bear cup, but the Rubbermaid juice box or the Take and Toss straw cups also work well. The important piece to the pump cup is that when you squeeze the cup, liquid comes up the straw. This allows you to help your child get liquid when they close their mouths around the straw. My favorite helper to these is a one-way straw valve (sold by Arc therapeutic) because this keeps the straw full of liquid and gives you more control when you are helping to get liquid out of the straw. This is not necessary, but definitely makes it easier.
To help to teach drinking from this, hold the cup to the child with the straw near their mouth. When they put their mouth over the straw, gently squeeze to give a couple of drops of the liquid, and wait for them to initiate again. After a few turns, add a pause to wait for them to begin to close their lips, then give a little bit of liquid. Extend your pauses to allow for more and more lip closure. Once they are closing their lips around the straw, give a pause to see if they will suck some liquid. If not, give a gentle squeeze to help them get started. Most kids do not need continuous squeezing to get liquids here. If they do, then still giving 1 sip at a time is better, as this will allow them to coordinate each drink. Once they get this down, you can remove the straw valve if you are using it, so they can practice needing to draw liquid up the length of the straw before getting a drink (this can be harder early on as they are building strength and/or understanding).
If you are experiencing difficulties with teaching this skill, or feel like your child may need some modification, then reach out to your team and they can help you strategize how to change the protocol.