Feeding Therapy
Bottle & Breastfeeding
Bottle & Breastfeeding
Feeding therapy can support your baby’s nutritional intake and promote joyful and communicative interactions during mealtimes.
Chewing & Swallowing
& other disorders
As your child’s food preferences expand, it is important to ensure they have the skills required to manage exciting new foods safely.
Picky Eating
& food aversions
Mealtimes promote social engagement and family relationships. Limited food inventories impact not only nutritional intake, but also your parent-child interaction.
Feeding Therapy
Start with a ConsultationBottle & Breastfeeding
Feeding therapy can support your baby’s nutritional intake and promote joyful and communicative interactions during mealtimes.
We support:
- Long, inefficient feeds
- Poor weight gain/growth
- Difficulty latching
- Nipple pain or soreness
- Challenges related to tongue or lip tie
- Weak or uncoordinated sucking, swallowing, & breathing
- Fussiness or colic
- Pain or discomfort related to feeding
Chewing & Swallowing
As your child’s food preferences expand, it is important to ensure they have the skills required to manage exciting new foods safely.
- Safe swallowing practices
- Weakness or incoordination of the oral musculature
- Tongue thrusting
- Grazing & other maladaptive mealtime behaviors
- Messy eaters & drooling
- Transition to table foods
- Use of age-appropriate drinking cups and utensils
- Pain or discomfort related to feeding
Picky Eaters & Food Averesions
Mealtimes promote social engagement and family relationships. Limited food inventories impact not only nutritional intake, but also your parent-child interaction.
- Mealtime tantrums
- Food refusal
- Increased variety of foods
- Expansion of colors, brands, textures
- Sensitivity to taste, smell, temperature
- Vomiting &/or gagging near food items
- Maladaptive behaviors resulting from medical procedures
Feeding therapy can bring the joy back to mealtime!
At SPACE, we understand the impact of oral motor and sensory difficulties that accompany feeding challenges and the complex interactions between the two. Our highly trained therapists:
- Understand the interplay among sensory, oral motor, behavioral, medical, and nutritional factors
- Promote safety and trust through positive, relaxed feeding experiences
- Collaborate with your child’s interdisciplinary feeding team
- Integrate a variety of therapeutic approaches and recommendations based on your family’s needs
Our therapists address your child’s needs in a holistic manner, carefully considering all factors that may be impacting your child’s progress, and make exploring and accepting new foods fun!
%
of all children on average experience feeding or swallowing difficulties.
%
of children with developmental disabilities experience some type of feeding problems
%
of all children on average experience feeding or swallowing difficulties.
%
of children with developmental disabilities experience some type of feeding problems
What Makes Feeding Therapy at SPACE Unique?
At SPACE, we recognize that every child is unique. Our feeding therapists:
- Create programs tailored to your child’s developmental capabilities
- Emphasize safe food exploration to gain trust and build relationships
- Encourage child-led pacing when exploring new foods
- Actively collaborate with your child’s entire medical team
- Maintain sensitivity to needs and culture of family unit
- Train caregivers and encourage participation over the course of treatment
Populations We Work With
A variety of physical, behavioral, and/or medical factors may place children at a higher risk of developing complex feeding challenges.
Our feeding therapists work with children experiencing:
- Attention deficit disorder (ADD) with or without hyperactivity (ADHD)
- Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other pervasive developmental disorders (PDD)
- Cerebral palsy (CP)
- Failure to thrive
- Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
- Genetic conditions, including Down syndrome
- Micrognathia, or “small jaw”
- Physiological conditions
- Poor muscle tone
- Picky eating
- Premature birth
- Structural differences, including tongue and/or lip tie
Meet our Feeding Therapy Team
Our feeding therapists have received formal, comprehensive training in evidence-based programs that support the development of feeding skills. Your child’s treatment plan is developed through collaboration with other medical professionals involved in his or her care and with a mindful understanding of their developmental capabilities.
Vanessa Chan-Felcman, Co-Founder, M.A., CCC/SLP
Gina Drummond, Clinical Director, OTD, OTR
Jordan Frye, MOT, OTR
Deondra Williams, MS CCC/SLP
Vanessa Chan-Felcman, Co-Founder, M.A., CCC/SLP
Jordan Frye, MOT, OTR
Gina Drummond, Clinical Director, OTD, OTR
Deondra Williams, MS CCC/SLP
What You Can Expect at SPACE.
At SPACE, we are committed to finding the therapist to best meet your family’s needs. Our feeding therapists work closely with parents and caregivers to understand your goals, explain the therapeutic process, and problem-solve solutions to best serve your family. We collaborate and communicate with you every step of the way so you feel right at home!
Your First Visit
Our therapists build rapport, trust, and a positive relationship with you and your child beginning with your first visit. An initial evaluation may include standardized assessments, clinical observations, and a caregiver report.
Ongoing Treatment
1:1 treatment or social groups in a private room, classroom, open gym, or outdoor playspace
Caregiver training and home programming throughout treatment
Collaboration with team members and other medical professionals
SPACE Feeding 'Toolkit'
Soffi Method
Certified Lactation Counseling
TalkTools Sensory-Motor Approach to Feeding
Beckman Oral Motor
SOS Approach to Feeding
DIRFloortime®
Your First Visit
Our first goal is to always build rapport with you & your child so that a positive relationship begins to develop. The safer your child feels at SPACE, the faster progress will begin! Initial evaluation may include standardized assessments, clinical observations and a caregiver report.
Ongoing Treatment
1:1 treatment or social groups in a private room, classroom, open gym, or outdoor playspace
Caregiver training and home programming throughout treatment
Collaboration with team members and other medical professionals
SPACE Feeding ‘Toolkit’
Soffi Method
Certified Lactation Counseling
TalkTools Sensory-Motor Approach to Feeding
SOS Approach to Feeding
DIRFloortime®
Get Started!
Click the button below to get started at SPACE! We’d love to assist you and your family find your SPACE at our SPACE.