Question
What is an occupational therapist's role in pediatric feeding therapy?
Answer
OT's will give you the sensory background information that you need when working with these children. For example, what kind of sensory diet do they need in terms of deep proprioception, movement in space, as well as self-feeding techniques with utensil use. Sometimes, depending on what region of the country you are in, OT's will assume the role of actually doing the feeding therapy which can be a little bit of a sticky situation because ASHA feels that speech-language pathologists are the best to deal with children who have feeding difficulties. So our job as SLP's is to help educate other disciplines about what we do and why we do what we do. But you can come across a variety of different scenarios as to what OT's are doing with children.
This Ask the Expert was taken from the course entitled: The Problem Eater: Picky Eating, Oral Sensory Issues, and Behavior Modification presented by Jennifer Dahms, M.S., CCC-SLP.
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Jennifer Dahms is a pediatric speech-language pathologist in Boise, Idaho. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. She has worked in pediatric outpatient clinics and Birth-to-Three programs in both Wisconsin and Idaho and currently has her own private practice, Valley Pediatric Feeding, LLC.
