ABSTRACT
Purpose:
to analyze axial tongue strength and related parameters by using the Forling.
Methods:
data regarding 92 participants, including men and women with a mean age of 23.3 ± 7.7 years, were analyzed.
Results:
the mean value of the mean tongue strength was 13.0 N, and the maximum strength value was 18.3 N. The mean and maximum tongue strengths showed positive correlation and highly significant association (p < 0.001). The energy accumulated by the tongue was 131.1 N/s. The mean time required for the maximum tongue strength to be reached was 3.8 s, and the decrease in time (p < 0.001) from the first to the third measurements indicates an effect of training.
Conclusion:
the instrument proved to be capable of measuring parameters that are important to the speech-language pathologist, indicating that it can be a promising complementary tool for clinical evaluation.
Keywords:
Tongue; Muscle Strength; Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences