If you know me at all, you know that my favorite area of speech path is phonological processing and articulation disorders, closely followed by our dear friends receptive and expressive language. However, I did, like most people, get exposure to pediatric and adult dyspagia assessment and treatment in grad school and in the back of my mind have always hoped for a feeding kiddo to pop onto my caseload.
Well, my dreams have come true, and I have my first pediatric feeding client right now who is working on behavioral strategies to manage the size and appropriate mastication of a bolus as well as timing for the swallow. This client is younger than 3 but is very with it cognitively and has no concomitant speech and language delays.
That being said, I made this nifty little placemat for her to color that we are going to laminate and use during her "feedings". When cleaned prior to eating, it has spots to place an appropriate amount of food (if it doesn't fit in the circle, it's too big to go in their mouth) with visual cues to take a sip of a drink following each swallow to wash away any additional residue or food particles. It also features visuals for us to use when describing the process of chewing and swallowing. It is my hope that as this patient gets a little older they will be able to gradually decrease using the visuals and demonstrate carryover, like always. My suggestion would be to print this on cardstock.
Here it is for download if you are interested!
Today I am linking up with Friday FreeBEES at Speechie Freebies! Check 'em out. :)
I don't have any feeding patients right now but I absolutely LOVE this visual. It's so fun and functional! If I ever get a feeding patient (or the guts to ask for one) I would 100% use this!
ReplyDeleteHaha thanks Emilee! I know you'd rock it with a feeding kiddo, as you do all the other ones:)
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