Sensory Integration Education

Supporting Individuals With Feeding Difficulties: Sensory Integration in Practice - A Multidisciplinary Perspective

If you support individuals with feeding difficulties, we have a new online course which can offer you greater understanding of how sensory integration and processing impacts feeding, as well as practical strategies to try in the home, school or clinic setting.

Feeding is one of the most complex things we require our bodies to do because it involves every sensory system integrating information about our body and the world around us. This course will provide you with a multidisciplinary perspective to understanding the complexity of feeding and will provide strategies that will inform therapeutic and educational planning to support children with feeding difficulties to improve their relationship with food.

It's a fascinating overview of theory with masses of advice from our highly experienced and engaging presenters on how to put it into real life practice. It covers why you shouldn't recommend many traditional strategies; how to get parents and other professionals on board; and how to build a relationship of trust with the child or individual with feeding difficulties. The online course, accessible at your convenience, comprises over 10 hours of closed captioned videos, presentations, interactive quizzes, worksheets and clinical discussions between Laura and Louisa. We’ve also included all the references and downloadable resources referred to in the course in one handy summary.

Topics covered include:

• Experiences of Food
• Typical Feeding Development
• The Complexity of Feeding
• What are Feeding Difficulties?
• Feeding Difficulties Why
• Risks of Commonly Used Strategies
• Strategies to Develop Feeding Skills
• What does it mean for Intervention
  
  

Your presenters

The course is delivered by Laura Osman, Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist, Advanced Sensory Integration Therapist, Feeding Therapist and Teacher and Louisa Hargett, a Highly Specialist Occupational Therapist, Advanced Sensory Integration Therapist, Feeding Therapist and Teacher. Laura and Louisa are experienced in conducting complex multidisciplinary team feeding assessments and intervention for individuals and for school wide feeding interventions.

Who should take this course?

Open to all, this comprehensive course is aimed at therapists, dietitians, psychologists and teachers working with children described as fussy or picky eaters and those with feeding difficulties or challenges. This course expects the audience to have a sound understanding of sensory integration theory. Therefore, if required, we would strongly recommend that participants complete the online Introduction to Sensory Integration Difficulties for Everyone (4 hour online course, priced at only £10) before starting this course.

Course outcomes

By the end of this course you will be able to:

• Understand typical feeding development
• Apply knowledge of sensory integration to describe the complexity of feeding
• Understand how sensory, physical, cognition, communication and social and emotional development impact upon feeding
• Use practical and positive strategies to improve a child’s feeding skills and their experience of feeding
• To apply new learning to therapeutic and educational interventions that improve a child’s experience of feeding

NB: This course does not cover dysphagia but highlights where referral to a dysphagia trained speech and language therapist is recommended before interventions are made.

Book your place on Supporting Individuals With Feeding Difficulties: Sensory Integration in Practice - A Multidisciplinary Perspective.

Davis AM, Bruce AS, Khasawneh R, Schulz T, Fox C, Dunn W (2013). Sensory processing issues in young children presenting to an outpatient feeding clinic. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2013 Feb;56(2):156-60