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...Do you work with special needs children who cry or scream, throw food, refuse to sit at a table and eat, or refuse to try new foods?

...Do you know children who eat only a limited number of foods or only eat the same food over and over?

...Is going to a restaurant out of the question for the families you work with?

By the time you see a family dealing with complex feeding issues, they're often in severe distress and extreme dysfunction. They're exasperated and frustrated from bribing their child to eat, and they have read every parenting blog on how to help a "picky eater." They just want their child to get the nutrients they need to thrive.

After working with families and complex feeding issues for over 17 years, I've discovered the interventions that work. And now I want to show you the customized tools, strategies and interventions you need to improve treatment outcomes.

Join me for my new online course, and I'll give you step-by-step guidance on how you can make mealtimes more peaceful and positive. Through comprehensive lessons, case studies, and video case examples, you will learn exactly what you need to do to successfully treat feeding difficulties in children with Autism, Cerebral Palsy and more.

You'll walk away with advanced techniques to:

  • Evaluate the causes of mealtime difficulties: behavior, sensory, oral motor, or a combination
  • Increase range of foods, decrease food jags
  • Improve jaw strength and decrease ineffective lip closure, or poor tongue lateralization
  • Integrate deep breathing and proprioceptive input to address self-regulation at the table
  • Increase self-regulation around feeding
  • Use food play and exploration to improve food acceptance
  • Educate parents and caregivers to promote carryover at home
  • ... and so much more

Don't wait to join me for this top-tier training on Treating Complex Feeding & Swallowing Issues.

Yours in learning,
Jessica Hunt, OTR/L

Treating Complex Feeding & Swallowing Issues in Children:
Targeted Sensory, Motor, and Behavior Techniques for Dysphagia, Autism, Cerebral Palsy and other Developmental Delays

$659.98 Value
Just $399.99 Today — Unbelievable Savings!
Plus, earn up to 18.75 CE Hours included in the course tuition. Click here for Credit details
Starting today, this program can revolutionize your practice…

"Jessica Hunt was a great presenter who obviously has a lot of experience. I would love to get to know her better and 'pick her brain'." - Kristen P.

"Very informative. I will be able to apply the information I learned to my clients." - Cheryl L.

"This was an excellent mix of current research, principles of feeding, and practical intervention strategies. Excellent course!" - Amanda A.

"Excellent content with real life examples." - Maryanne K.

"Excellent course. Would recommend this to anyone doing feeding therapy." - Alexandra S.

"One of the best programs I've seen! Jessica was so knowledgeable and her ideas and strategies can be applied to so many aspects of different therapies!" - Betsy W.

"This course was fantastic and by far the best one I have attended in many years!!! Tons of helpful tips and strategies that can be used immediately. Speaker was very approachable, professional, and knowledgeable. Great seminar!!!!! Thank you!" - Susan C.

"I found this course extremely helpful in my current practice as an early access OT. The information was relevant and timely; Jessica provided valuable information and resources to use. Thank you for offering such a valuable course! " - Patty S.

"I REALLY enjoy taking PESI courses online. It’s so convenient!" - Carla S.

What will I learn?
Through intriguing videos, case studies, and masterful explanation, you will learn how to apply the latest findings from research to your treatment protocols in practical, effective ways.

This intensive session will provide you the knowledge you need to:
 
  • Evaluate how sensory processing, behavior and oral motor skills impact or interfere with each child's ability to eat

  • Role play how to implement sensory techniques during and prior to meal times to address difficulities such as not wanting to touch certain foods or sit at the table

  • Implement oral motor exercises and strategies to promote feeding patterns such as rotary chewing pattern, lip closure and tongue lateralization

  • Explore the misconceptions about feeding that impact special needs children

  • Understand the behaviors that interfere with eating and devise strategies to address the behavior

  • Support and guide parents and caregivers through often emotional or stressful meal times
Treating Complex Feeding & Swallowing Issues in Children:
Targeted Sensory, Motor, and Behavior Techniques for Dysphagia, Autism, Cerebral Palsy and other Developmental Delays

$659.98 Value
Just $399.99 Today — Unbelievable Savings!
Plus, earn up to 18.75 CE Hours included in the course tuition. Click here for Credit details
Program Outline

 

Complex Feeding Issues:
Sensory, Motor, and Behavior Techniques for Autism, Cerebral Palsy and other Developmental Delays
 
Join Jessica Hunt, OTR/L, as she walks you step by step through the tools and strategies you need to successfully treat complex feeding issues. Together, you'll explore common misconceptions, the overlap of sensory processing skills (including oral motor skills and behaviors), and review the key takeaways of normal development.

 

The Complexities of Feeding
  • Definition and prevalence – new information; move toward Pediatric Feeding Disorder
  • Overlap of sensory processing skills, oral motor skills and behaviors
  • Normal developmental key points
  • Neurological foundations
  • Trauma, feeding and impact on brain
    • NICU and medical trauma, NG Tubes, trachotmesty, etc.
    • Negative experience around feeding gagging, retching, pain with eating
Evaluation of Feeding Skills
  • Differentiate between sensory overload and behaviors during feeding
  • Activity analysis of feeding – Evaluation videos and group analysis
  • Information obtained – what questions to ask
  • Oral motor evaluation – jaw, lips, tongue strength; range of motion for feeding
  • Hands-on draw to learn lab
Sensory Integration Strategies
  • Research-backed sensory play-based approach
    • Decrease sensory over-responsivity to foods
    • Use food exploration/cooking for older kids
  • Self-regulation to engage body during feeding
    • Core engagement
    • Breathing exercises
    • Therapeutic use of music
    • Heavy work
Oral Motor Skills
  • Lab – Oral motor exercises, kineseotaping, stretching
  • Children who don’t swallow safely – saliva management, increase swallowing
Food in Therapy
Taste Lab – Sensory feedback and motor requirement needed for each food texture
  • Progression of food texture
  • Match food presented in therapy to child’s sensory needs and motor skills
  • Nutritional considerations
Behaviors During Mealtimes: Environmental Strategies to Set Children Up for Success
  • Manage common mealtime behaviors – throwing foods, not sitting, crying during mealtimes
  • Increase cooperation using the “just right challenge”
  • Shift between treatment frameworks
  • How to use the “feeding roadmap”
Special Considerations
  • Autism
  • Cerebral Palsy
  • Down Syndrome
  • Children who don’t eat by mouth/G-Tube
  • Medically complex children
Promote Carry-Over At Home
  • Educate parents who are stressed and in survival mode
  • Help families have realistic expectations
  • Easy-to-implement home programs that parents will do
  • Help parents to change the relationship between child and food
Treating Complex Feeding & Swallowing Issues in Children:
Targeted Sensory, Motor, and Behavior Techniques for Dysphagia, Autism, Cerebral Palsy and other Developmental Delays

$659.98 Value
Just $399.99 Today — Unbelievable Savings!
Plus, earn up to 18.75 CE Hours included in the course tuition. Click here for Credit details
FREE Bonus Seminar (A $219.99 Value)

 

Complex Feeding & Swallowing Problems in Children:
Discover the Underlying Causes of Food Refusal for a More Targeted Treatment Plan
 

This essential bonus seminar will give you successful strategies for identifying the underlying etiology of dysphagia. You'll hear the evidence base for specific therapies, including oral-motor techniques, behavioral interventions, nutritional interventions, and strategies for respiratory control, are evaluated.

 

Respiratory System Development and Functions
  • You can’t eat if you can’t breathe
  • Breathing/swallowing Coordination and Discoordination
  • Role of pulmonary clearance
  • Aspiration and aspiration pneumonia
  • Incorporate respiratory indicators in evaluation
  • Exercise Interventions for breathing/swallow discoordination and respiratory insufficiencies

Pharyngeal Dysphagia
  • Clinical assessment matters!
  • Instrumental assessment options
  • Improving pharyngeal swallow function
  • Interventions to decrease aspiration risk
  • Dietary modifications — texture modifications and thick liquids pros and cons
  • Oral hygiene
  • Interactive case review — What your client’s gut is telling you

GI System Development
  • GI system and respiration connection
  • Reflux and reflux disease
  • Constipation
  • Allergies
  • Dietary and lifestyle interventions
  • Food allergies and the gut
  • Positioning and sleep

Oral Motor Function
  • Postural stability matters
  • Oral muscles are not skeletal muscles
  • Exercise Interventions — are they right for your client
Sensory Processing and Eating
  • Food as therapy
  • The role of taste and smell
  • Strategies — how to expand food repertoire
 

When it Really Is Behavior

  • What’s the behavior’s form AND function
  • Examining the feeding environment
  • Finding the right reinforcement strategy
  • Behavioral intervention in 5 steps: Environment, hunger, reinforcement, shaping and parent training
  • Interactive case review — when it’s behavior…but not just behavior
 

Weaning From Tube Feeding

  • Priming the gut
  • Rapid vs. gradual weans
  • Blended diets
  • Strategies for tube feed weaning
  • Blended diets — when and who
 

More Nutritional Interventions for Pharyngeal Dysphagia, GI Development, Oral Motor Function, Sensory Processing, Behavior and Tube Feeding

  • Nutrition and immune system function
  • Supplements
  • Which special diets are really special
  • Techniques to improve nutrition 
Treating Complex Feeding & Swallowing Issues in Children:
Targeted Sensory, Motor, and Behavior Techniques for Dysphagia, Autism, Cerebral Palsy, and other Developmental Delays


$659.98 Value
Just $399.99 Today — Unbelievable Savings!
Meet the Course Experts:
Jessican Hunt, OTR/L
Jessica Hunt, OTR/L, is well-known for her experience in treating pediatric sensory processing disorders in both the home and clinical settings. She serves children by bringing her feeding expertise directly into the home setting through her company, J.L. Hunt Therapeutics, and is the notable recipient of the 2011 Michigan Occupational Therapy Association Award of Excellence.
 

Previously, she worked for 10 years at Kaufman Children’s Center as the director of occupational therapy and sensory integrations programs and then as the director of feeding and oral motor programs. She is certified in sensory integration, receiving her Sensory Integration and Praxis Test (SIPT) certification in 2008, and studied with Lucy Jane Miller, PhD, OTR, who is nationally recognized for sensory research, education, and treatment.

She gained expertise in “picky eating,” oral-motor therapy through trainings that include the Beckman Protocol and Talk Tools, behaviors issues with feeding, feeding strategies for children who have autism, and treating medically challenging children. She is also trained in craniofacial therapy, advanced training in Therapeutic Listening, Integrated Listening System, and Handwriting without Tears.

She received her bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy from Wayne State University in 2003.
 
Speaker Disclosures: Financial: Jessica Hunt maintains a private practice. She receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. Non-financial: Jessica Hunt has no relevant non-financial relationship to disclose.
 
Angela Mansolillo, MA/CCC-SLP, BCS-S
Angela Mansolillo, MA/CCC-SLP, BCS-S, is a speech-language pathologist and Board Recognized Specialist in Swallowing Disorders with over 21 years of experience. She is a senior speech-language pathologist at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she is involved in evaluation, treatment, and program planning for adults and children with dysphagia.

In addition, she is a clinical supervisor and adjunct faculty member at Elms College Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in Chicopee, Massachusetts. For over 15 years, she has worked in a variety of clinical settings, provided numerous regional and national presentations and served as guest lecturer at several colleges and universities throughout Massachusetts.

Ms. Mansolillo received her Bachelor of Arts degree in communication from Rhode Island College and earned her Master of Arts in speech-language pathology from the University of Connecticut. She is a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and is a member of Special Interest Division 13, which focuses on swallowing and swallowing disorders.

Speaker Disclosures: Financial: Angela Mansolillo has an employment relationship with Cooley Dickinson Hospital. She receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. Non-financial: Angela Mansolillo is board certified specialist, Swallowing and Swallowing Disorders of the American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
The Next Steps in Advancing Your Practice
 
Watch your email for your order confirmation. You’ll receive instructions for instantly accessing the comprehensive videos, handouts and bonus materials—all designed to help your clients regulate their nervous systems so they can feel safe in their body. Click here for course objectives and outline.
 
Review the course materials at your own pace and at your convenience! You'll have unlimited access to all course videos and materials online forever. Plus, use the PESI Mobile™ app to access the course content on-the-go, wherever and whenever you want on your mobile devices.
 
Instantly collaborate with other professionals on the course materials through interactive message boards. When you register for this course, you’ll join a community of hundreds of practitioners using these tools in their own practices. Use this valuable connection to share insight and experiences, and to build your professional network.
 
Complete your online CE tests and earn up to 18.75 CE hours! Click here for Credit details and credit details specific to your profession.
100% Satisfaction Guarantee
Register for Pediatric Complex Feeding Issues: Discover the Underlying Causes for a More Targeted Treatment without risk. If you're not completely satisfied, give us a call at 800-844-8260. We're that confident you'll find this learning experience to be all that's promised and more than you expected.
 
Treating Complex Feeding & Swallowing Issues in Children:
Targeted Sensory, Motor, and Behavior Techniques for Dysphagia, Autism, Cerebral Palsy and other Developmental Delays

$659.98 Value
Just $399.99 Today — Unbelievable Savings!
Plus, earn up to 18.75 CE Hours included in the course tuition. Click here for Credit details

NOTE: No additional discounts or coupons may be applied to this course.
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