How does feeding therapy work?

 

​It takes a lot of skill to properly eat and drink!

Not only are there different oral motor and coordination skills involved with sucking, chewing and swallowing, but some children experience sensory issues that present even more of a challenge come mealtime.

Depending on your child’s underlying issues, whether they be sensory, motor, or a combination of both, your therapist will devise a sensory motor approach for working on addressing the underlying barriers to your child’s ability to eat an age-appropriate meal. 

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Way to Grow Therapies is trained in the following programs:

SOS Approach to Feeding

Feed the Peds®

The Myo Method®

Beckman Oral Motor

Kaufman Speech Praxis Approach

as well as many other swallowing and feeding courses over the years!

Once your child gets the food or drink into their mouth, they need to be able to swallow it.

 Lots of us take the act of swallowing for granted as an instinctual process. The reality is swallowing is an extremely complex undertaking! We use approximately 50 pairs of muscles during 1 swallow. These muscles need to work in perfect coordination and sequence. Issues with any part of that process can impact swallowing.

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There are many possible causes of swallowing disorders, such as a structural difference like a cleft palate, a tongue tie, or tracheoesophageal fistula. It may also stem from chronic conditions like GERD. Sometimes problems start at birth, and other times we don't see it become an issue until the introduction of solid foods.

 

Swallowing therapy helps your child gain better control of their oral and throat muscles so they can enjoy their food and maintain good nutrition. Your child may need a swallowing therapy evaluation if they struggle with:

• Coughing or choking on food or drink

• Gagging on food or drink

• Projectile vomiting

• Tongue thrust

• Pediatric dysphagia

Myofunctional therapy targets maladaptive movement patterns of the face and mouth that cause Orofacial Myofunctional Disorders (OMDs) such as such as:​

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• Tongue thrusting

• Mouth breathing

• Forward resting posture of the tongue

• Short upper lip

• Tongue, lip, or cheek ties     

• Thumb/finger sucking/nail biting

• ​Poor sleep and complications from sleep apnea​

• Teeth grinding/clenching

• TMJ pain

• Orthodontic relapse​

• Elongated facial growth

• Articulation disorders

• ADD/ADHD 

• Learning disabilities

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These abnormal movement patterns can affect people of all ages and often actually begin in utero. They can be formally addressed with myofunctional therapy for children with a cognitive age of 4+. While children under the age of 4 are too young for traditional myofunctional therapy, they can benefit from specialized feeding therapy to reduce and prevent the development of OMDs in the future.

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❤️Way to Grow Therapies also treats adults who are suffering from OMDs. It is often with the diagnosis of a child's OMD that a parent realizes they themselves are battling health issues caused by an underlying OMD. Myofunctional therapy for the parent can offer life changing results as well.❤️

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Some of the techniques and strategies our therapists may use include: 

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1. Oral Motor Exercises: These exercises target specific muscles involved in feeding and swallowing to improve strength, coordination, and mobility. Examples include tongue exercises, lip and cheek exercises, and jaw stabilization exercises.

2. Sensory Stimulation: Therapists may use different sensory techniques to increase or decrease oral sensitivity, depending on the child's needs. These can include introducing various textures, temperatures, tastes, and smells to the mouth, promoting desensitization or increased awareness.

3. Positioning and Postural Strategies: Adjusting the child's body position during feeding can greatly impact their ability to swallow effectively. Therapists may provide guidance on optimal positioning techniques, such as adjusting the head, neck, and trunk alignment to facilitate safe and efficient swallowing.

4. Modified Food and Liquid Consistencies: If a child has difficulty with certain textures or consistencies, the therapist may recommend modifying the food and liquid textures to make them easier to manage. This can involve thickening liquids, puréeing or blending foods, or gradually introducing different textures. Same can be done with textures.

5. Feeding and Swallowing Strategies: We often provide specific strategies to enhance safe and efficient swallowing during mealtimes. These strategies may include modifying bite sizes, using specific chewing patterns, utilizing compensatory strategies, or implementing pacing techniques to optimize swallowing function.

6. Oral-Motor Feeding Therapy: This type of therapy involves providing the child with opportunities to practice feeding skills using appropriate food textures. The therapist may guide the child in learning and refining the oral motor movements necessary for chewing, swallowing, and managing food effectively.

7. Environmental Modifications: We may suggest changes to the feeding environment to support positive feeding experiences. This can involve adjusting seating arrangements, using adaptive equipment (e.g., special utensils or cups), and creating a calm and distraction-free environment.

8. Parent/Caregiver Education and Training: It is essential to involve parents and caregivers in the therapy process. Our therapists will provide education and training on techniques, strategies, and exercises that can be implemented with the family to support consistent progress and generalization of skills.

Articulation is the ability of a child to correctly formulate and produce different phonemes (sounds). Sounds easy, right? Well, it’s actually not! Correct articulation is extremely complex!

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There are three main aspects of articulation:

• The way we use our breath to produce sound (respiration)

• The way we use our vocal cords to produce sound (phonation)

• The way we resonate the sound produced by our vocal cords (resonance)

• The way we use our mouth, tongue, and teeth to produce sound (articulation)

When we produce speech sounds, air from our lungs is forced through our vocal cords. The vocal cords vibrate, producing sound waves. We then shape the sound waves with our mouth, tongue, and teeth to produce the specific sounds we want to make. Articulation refers to the way we use our mouth, tongue, and teeth to produce speech sounds.

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Each sound develops differently. The following sound development chart shows the approximate age range when children typically produce each sound correctly:

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https://slpnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Articulation-Cheat-Sheet-Update.pdf

 

Based on this speech sound development chart, each speech sound develops at a different time because the muscles your child needs to produce each sound are different. For example, the muscle groups needed to produce a /p/ sound are different than the muscle groups needed to produce an /m/ sound. This is why some sounds may develop earlier than others.Some children may have difficulty producing certain sounds even after the age when most children have mastered those sounds. If your child is still having difficulty producing certain sounds after the age when most children have mastered those sounds, they may benefit from articulation therapy. A speech evaluation can give you a definitive answer.

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During the evaluation The SLP will administer a standardized articulation and phonological assessment where they will determine not only which sounds need to be focused on, but also in which word position the errors occur (beginning, middle, or end). In addition, they will examine: 

• What speech patterns are occurring?

• Are they substituting the sound with a different one?

• Do they attempt to produce it, but the sound is distorted or unclear?

• Are they deleting the sound completely?

• Are they using phonological processes to simplify their speech?

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During speech therapy your child’s SLP will use a variety of activities and exercises to help them including:

• Identifying the sounds they can’t make.

• Correcting the way they create sounds.

• Re-learning ways to control the motor parts of speech (for example, moving their tongue, shaping their lips).

• Strengthening the muscles involved in speech.

• Practicing sound formation at home.

​​Language therapy helps improve the understanding and use of age-appropriate vocabulary, concepts and syntax, from the grammar of a child just learning to speak to the written composition skills of a high school student. Children newborn to 3 years old may require some help getting their communication skills started, while children 3 and older are gradually acquiring more and more complex language skills that may need support. 

 

Check out this link for developmental language norms to see if your child would benefit from language therapy: 

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communication-milestones

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If you have concerns, you can have your child evaluated. 

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During the evaluation The SLP will administer a standardized language test where they will evaluate receptive and expressive language skills. Based on these results they will develop goals to target the specific language needs. 

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