Oral Motor and Feeding Therapy | Speech Language-Treatment Services | Dallas, Plano, Allen, McKinney, Sherman
Feeding Therapy for Families in Plano, Allen & Beyond
Many children are referred to our clinic because of their history of tolerating only a few food items in their eating repertoire. This rigidity, at times, causes family stress and the inability for the family to enjoy a basic activity such as eating out in a restaurant or at a friend's house.
At Sally Bober & Associates, we have found on most occasions a sensory processing disorder may be an underlying negative factor. We also do a screening for possible tongue-tie, lip or cheek ties. Approximately 50% of our feeding population has an undiagnosed restriction. We work with a team of dentists, ENTs and neurochiropractics to perform pre and post frenectomy care.
The family's physician may recommend not worrying about how much the child eats because "no child will starve themselves-they will finally give in and eat." We have found that in the majority of cases children with oral and tactile hypersensitivities will not give in and eat. It takes a confident, tenured Speech-Language Pathologist to "push with love" and set up an appropriate feeding protocol that is strong in oral motor work.
We often need to desensitize a hypersensitive gag that has forced the child to be very guarded with all oral movements. When reviewing the child's medical history there is often a history of reflux which may go undiagnosed and therefore sets up a negative experience. We are very successful in teaching the individual to eat a normal repertoire of foods and liquids because we understand the underlying causes. We know from working with hundreds of children and adults how to positively reinforce those vegetative movements necessary for jaw gradation, tolerance of light and deep touch orally, emphasis of lingual movements that form a cohesive bolus, completing the swallow of each bite and actually enjoying the eating experience.