Course Description
When you look through a kaleidoscope, there are many shapes and colors that create a picture. It may be blurry at first, but as you turn the kaleidoscope, the shapes and colors continue to change until you get a clear and complete picture.
Similarly, when a client comes to see a speech/feeding professional, the picture may seem a little out of focus because there may be myriad issues that are being presented usually all at once!
These are some of the many things speech and feeding professionals have to be aware of when assessing pediatric feeding clients:
How are they sitting?
What is their breathing like — is it through their nose or their mouth?
How is their coordination?
Are there sensory regulation issues?
How is their motor planning?
Are they focused or distracted?
Can they follow directions?
How about their orofacial structure — their head shape? their palate? are there tethered oral tissues?
And how about the family dynamics — what does mealtime look like?
When we observe our clients through the TalkTools® Kaleidoscope Feeding Model™, we can connect these interactive, interdependent aspects that define our clients’ feeding patterns to build a clear, coherent treatment plan within the multidisciplinary team framework.