Dates, Location, and Sponsors | Instructor | Course Objectives | Schedule

Children are born with the inner ability to eat and to grow appropriately. During infancy they learn to interact with adults as they expand their eating skills and enjoy both the food and the mealtime environment. Some children experience a disruption of this normal cycle because of difficulties in physical, sensory, gastrointestinal, and environmental skills and opportunities. The workshop will explore some of the roadblocks that limit the development of eating skills and comfort in order to help children return to their natural desire to be part of mealtimes.  Strategies designed to increase feeding skills within the mealtime environment are discussed. The workshop will address the feeding and mealtime issues of children who eat and drink by mouth as well as those who receive their nutrition through a feeding tube.

The workshop will be of special interest to speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, special educators, parents, and others working with infants and children who experience feeding and mealtime difficulties. The workshop will address the feeding and mealtime issues of children who eat and drink by mouth as well as those who receive their nutrition through a feeding tube.

This workshop may be taught in either a 2-day or 3-day format.

COURSE DATES, LOCATIONS
& SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS

Please contact the sponsoring organization for a brochure and registration information.

This workshop has not been scheduled for 2008

INSTRUCTOR

Suzanne Evans Morris, Ph.D., is a speech-language pathologist in private practice near Charlottesville, Virginia. She is nationally and internationally known for her work in identifying and treating young children with feeding and pre-speech disorders. Dr. Morris maintains a practice which includes direct clinical work, continuing education workshops, development of clinical materials and clinical research. She is the director of New Visions, which sponsors innovative workshops for the teaching of feeding-related skills, and provides family-oriented clinical services. Dr. Morris has studied Neurodevelopmental Treatment approaches extensively in England, Switzerland, and the United States. She is the author of the Pre-Speech Assessment Scale, a rating scale for the measurement of pre-speech behaviors in children from birth through two years, and coauthor of Pre-Feeding Skills: A Comprehensive Resource for Mealtime Development (2nd edition), and the Mealtime Participation Guide.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

This workshop will enable the participant to

• understand the multiple functions of a mealtime and the importance of mealtimes for the child and family.

• understand the interactive role played by beliefs and attitudes, the mealtime partnership, mealtime communication, gastrointestinal comfort, sensory processing, positioning and movement, and oral feeding abilities in the development of mealtime skills

• explore strategies that support mealtime comfort and skill development in the following areas

  • learning & communication

  • postural tone and movement

  • sensory processing and integration

  • gastrointestinal efficiency

• understand and implement an appropriate division of responsibility at mealtimes

• help children develop greater trust and confidence in their relationship to food

• identify the key issues that influence a child’s ability to eat and drink happily and efficiently

• introduce new foods into a child’s diet

• create a positive mealtime for children who eat through a feeding tube

• develop a trust-based treatment program that nourishes the child's ability to develop and enhance feeding skills

DAY 1

Issues and Strategies to Enhance Feeding and Mealtime Skills–

• Mealtimes

Mealtimes form the core of our relationship with food and with each other. We will explore and discuss the essential nature of mealtimes for children and families and the type of division of responsibility and mealtime partnership that supports learning to eat skillfully and with enjoyment.

We will discuss the special challenges and opportunities that are created when a child has difficulty with eating.

We will review the areas that contribute to comfortable and efficient eating and mealtime abilities.  

We will focus on creating meaningful mealtimes for children who eat by mouth as well as those who receive their meals through a feeding tube.

Break

• Beliefs and Attitudes

Beliefs and attitudes serve as the filters through which we experience the world. We will review the many beliefs about eating that we take for granted and

We will investigate the idea that we can “get kids to eat” and will contrast the beliefs and subsequent actions of feeding programs based on a “control model” and a “trust model”.

Lunch

• Learning and Change

Learning is the central aspect of changing the way we eat and interact at mealtimes. We will consider how young children learn new skills and how they approach changes.  

We will look at the developmental tasks that guide children in their interests and inner agendas. A variety of tools that support learning to eat will be reviewed.

Break

• Mealtime Communication

All infants and children have the ultimate information and insight into what they need to learn and change. We will investigate the non-verbal ways in which kids communicate through their body language and behavior. 

We will take the position that children can guide us and be our teachers. They let us know what will support and help them in the mealtime journey when we understand what they are telling us.  

We will explore ways in which we can communicate more effectively in our portion of the mealtime partnership.  

We will approach signals of hunger and fullness as a type of inner message and explore ways in which we can help children recognize how their bodies talk to them.

End of Session

DAY 2

• Gastrointestinal Discomfort

Many children associate gastrointestinal discomfort with eating.  They become very reluctant eaters because it hurts when they eat . . . or they assume that it will hurt.  

We will explore the role played by reflux, nausea, vomiting, retching and constipation in the recognition of hunger, satiation and desire to eat.  

We will discuss various strategies for increasing gastrointestinal comfort as part of the child’s feeding and mealtime program.

• Sensory Processing

Our sensory system guides mealtime comfort and eating skill development.  

We will investigate concepts of sensory integration and the role played by sensory processing in feeding difficulties.

We will discuss ways in which we can utilize our knowledge of sensory processing to prepare children for new foods and more comfortable meals and.

Break

• Positioning and Movement

The mouth and body interact in partnership to support efficient eating.  

We will investigate this relationship and discover the effect of changes in muscle tone and movement on our ability to eat.  

We will look at the physical challenges of the mealtime and develop a set of guidelines for positioning children to maximize oral feeding coordination.

Lunch

• Oral Feeding Skills

We will explore and review the feeding journey taken by children in developing feeding skills.  

We will begin by expanding our understanding of mouthing and the role it plays in preparing the mouth for eating more complex foods.  

We will discuss sucking, swallowing, biting and chewing from a perspective of what children are learning at each stage and how they prepare for the next step. 

We will look at specific physical, sensory and oral-motor limits that create roadblocks for children in their ability to eat efficiently.

Afternoon Break

• Putting It All Together

When we understand the multiple areas that influence our children’s eating patterns, we can organize what we know and create a plan.

With an overall plan and set of directions, we can begin a new journey toward the type of mealtime we really want for our children and ourselves. 

We will discuss guidelines for making choices in  implementing feeding and mealtime programs

End of Session

DAY 3

Sharpening Our Observations:  Implementing the Transition from Theory to Therapy

Break

Treatment Demonstration of a Child with Feeding and Mealtime Challenges

Discussion and Questions

Lunch

Treatment Demonstration of a Child with Feeding and Mealtime Challenges

Break

Questions and Discussion

End of Session