Feeding — the process of eating and drinking — is something all species do instinctively. It seems like a simple act but it is anything but that . . .

TalkTools® Instructors, Vanessa Anderson-Smith, Monica Purdy, and Rehab Zaytoun, have teamed together to create a comprehensive, “user-friendly,” highly applicable course for speech and feeding professionals. This course will take a deep dive into the “foundations” of the feeding process, integrating a client-centered, family-focused therapy approach to feeding roadblocks therapists see every day across all age groups. The course will employ the TalkTools® Kaleidoscope Feeding Model™ — which draws upon an evolving, multi-disciplinary perspective to allow flexible, customizable therapy approaches for building feeding evaluations and program plans.

Participants will experience hands-on, interactive learning with applicable techniques, case studies, and key strategies incorporated throughout the course. Instruction will include: what to look for when initially assessing a client, identifying relevant anatomy and structure (including a review of the self-study module–see below), the impacts of these systems on eating and drinking, as well as outlining feeding milestones and what to observe when these milestones are not reached. Participants will look across the pediatric feeding experience, assessing infant feeding and the critical transition from breast/bottle to the table — and applying evidence-informed, therapy-based strategies and solutions for overcoming feeding roadblocks therapists often see.