First Bite #116 – September 08, 2020

Quick Tips for a Successful Feeding Therapy Session

(.1 ASHA and AOTA CEUs) For more info, click here.

Course Description

In this episode, Michelle is joined by the powerhouse that is Erin Forward, MSP CCC-SLP, when they break down some of their favorite tips for conducting a successful Feeding Therapy Session. If you are struggling with creating an optimal position for PO intake, Erin and Michelle will help provide strategies that are low-cost to no cost. Have you considered how “busy” the therapy room may appear to the patient that you’re working with…and how that will impact their ability to attend to the activity? Erin and Michelle offer guidance on how to declutter that clinic space and why! Are you feeling frustrated by challenging behaviors during your session…and not sure which steps you need to take to help ease the storm? Erin and Michelle have ideas to bring the calm! Tune in for an hour of evidence-based feeding strategies that work!

Objective

By the end of this PodCourse, participants will be able to identify and describe:

  • 3 considerations for optimal positioning for PO intake.
  • 3 considerations for environmental changes to address sensory/vision needs.
  • 3 considerations for behavioral challenges during Feeding Therapy.

Co-Presenter

Erin Forward, MSP CF-SLP

Erin currently resides in Greenville, SC but grew up in Rochester, NY where her family still resides. Erin attended the University of Pittsburgh for her Undergraduate degrees in Communication Science and Disorders and Psychology, and completed her Master’s degree in Speech Pathology at the University of South Carolina. She has worked in a variety of settings including early-intervention/home-health, NICU in a children’s hospital, and an outpatient feeding clinic. Erin currently works for a non-profit outpatient speech clinic, where she specializes in pediatric feeding and swallowing disorders.

Erin is the Co-Host of the wildly acclaimed PodCourse/PodCast “First Bite: Fed, Fun, Functional a Speech Therapy”, sponsored by Speechtherapypd.com. Erin is passionate about engaging in interprofessional practice for her patients and advocating for attainment of functional independence for patients and their families, all done with a little bit of fun and joy. She believes that if you tell a child they can do something, they can do it, which is what makes working with children so rewarding, as they inspire her every day.