Oral Motor & Feeding Info

Back in February I had posted a blog listing some helpful oral motor sites & articles and Samana Khan had left me a comment asking if I knew of any good oral motor/feeding courses.  I would like to apologize to Samana first for taking so long to respond to her question and I would like to offer a few courses and books here that I have found helpful. 

Working in the birth to three population I find that the role of helping with oral motor and/or feeding issues is usually left up to the Occupational Therapist or COTA.  I know that this is not always the case when it comes to rehabilitation hospitals as the role there is primarily left to the Speech Language Therapist, with the OT/COTA backing them up.  Oral motor and feeding is a hard topic to become proficient on  because each child is individual and the reason they may not be eating could be due to any number of reasons.  I'll go into this a little further in my next blog later this week.  For now I would like to list some seminars and books that I have found helpful.

Classes are few and far between and there are times when the class tends to be more technical then helpful.  I have tried to attend a few classes but find that I relay a good deal on books to help me with my oral motor/feeding strategies.  With that in mind I wanted to offer this list of classes and books that you may find helpful.  If there are other seminars/classes/books that you've found helpful I would love to hear about them.  I will add to this list as new ones come to my attention.

I learned a lot from the first two classes/seminars in particular:

Picky Eaters or Problem Eaters (the SOS approach to Feeding) - given by Education Resources, Inc.

Tube Feeding with Love -  given by Mealtime Notions (even though it is based on helping the therapist who works with children on tube feedings I came back with a lot of basic oral motor and sensory strategies that have helped children who were not on tube feeds).

Beckman Oral Motor Seminars - lists various seminars taught by Debra Beckman providing intensive hands-on workshops to learn the Beckman Oral Motor Protocol.

Innovative Therapists International - Oral Motor and Sensory Motor therapy seminars.

A few books on the subject also ....

Oral Motor Assessment and Treatment:  Ages and Stages -

Food Chaining: The Proven 6-Step Plan to Stop Picky Eating, Solve Feeding Problems, and Expand Your Childs Diet (Paperback)

Just Take a Bite - (One of my favorite books to go back and get ideas from) - "Just Take a Bite" takes parents and professionals step by step through the myths about eating to the complexity of eating itself, which leads to an understanding of physical, neurological and/or psychological reason why children may not be eating as they should.

Just Two More Bites!: Helping Picky Eaters Say Yes to Food

As a child my family's menu consisted of two choices:  take it or leave it.

~Buddy Hackett

A three-year-old gave this reaction to her Christmas dinner:  "I don't like the turkey, but I like the bread he ate." 

~Author Unknown