While some patients in skilled nursing facilities are there for short-term stays in order to receive various therapy and nursing services, others will remain with us for months, years, or possibly for the rest of their lives. We expect to see some patients again due to the progressive nature of some disorders. Others might return unexpectedly to ...

In the SNF, therapists often get accustomed to choosing pureed, mechanical soft, or regular diet textures. At times, I request a mechanical soft meal with pureed meats, and some facilities ask us to specify mechanical soft with chopped meats or mechanical soft with ground meats. In some facilities, mechanical soft texture is by default softer ...

As we consider sensory changes that occur throughout the aging process, it is important to remember the subtle differences that will manifest and how they might affect a patient's participation in therapy and daily activities, as well as his or her quality of life. My colleagues and I often notice that while we are usually warm, often ...

There is often no easy answer to address swallowing deficits in the elderly. I am sometimes approached by staff and families because a resident ''cannot swallow'' or ''is not eating/ drinking/ taking medications,'' but upon evaluation, I find no physical cause, but rather a cognitive-based problem. There are other patients who do have ...

Earlier this past week, one of the teachers I work with, Jamie Zarmanian, shared with our preschool classes this fabulous recipe for pumpkin spice Play-Doh. The entire classroom smelled like cinnamon cookies! The texture was perfect - soft, but not sticky and children really seemed to enjoy using a different type of Play-Doh to roll, ...

This is the last week of my Piccolini Perfecto Pasta creations. Please take a look at my previous two recipe posts for ideas on how to create a delicious rainbow of flavors and nutrients using Barilla's Piccolini vegetable pastas. The third and final recipe includes the Mini Rotelle (aka mini wagon wheels), wonderfully made with spinach ...

Last week I introduced my latest pasta passion--Barilla's Minature Piccolini veggie pastas! I also shared one of my own creations using the Mini Pipe Pasta. This week, I have a new recipe using different vegetables and a different sauce. These pasta dishes are a great way to incorporate vegetables into your picky eater's diet! ...

This week I would like to share my most recent love affair with food for little ones: Barilla's Piccolini Pasta with Veggies! Each box of pasta ''contains 25 percent pureed fresh in-season vegetables.'' There are three different types that Barilla currently makes, shown below: From top to bottom: Mini pipes made with carrots and ...

If you have been reading this blog since its inception three years ago (the first post was published October 1, 2008) then you will know that when I began writing my weekly posts, I was working in a home-based birth to 3 program. It was that experience that prompted me to contact ADVANCE with the idea to create a speech and language therapy ...

This week as part of our speech-language lessons, we are continuing the theme of apples along with the story of Johnny Appleseed. The story has really been a hit with the children! It is only six pages long, but in each segment there is a new action. The students are learning how to identify the actions, describe the pictures and sequence all ...