Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing Service Delivery Considerations

ASHA has developed a series of recorded conversations discussing the specific needs required to provide pediatric feeding and swallowing services in varied practice settings—both for in-person services and via telepractice. In the spirit of interprofessional collaboration, the panelists in this series include an occupational therapist working in early intervention, and a speech-language pathologist working in schools to highlight how considerations vary depending on where they are providing these services.

Early Intervention and Private Practice

Panelist: Judy Delaware, OTR/L, CLC, has been a registered and licensed pediatric occupational therapist and feeding specialist for more than 30 years and is a certified lactation counselor. Judy is president of Positive Therapeutic Beginnings in Colorado. She contracts with Colorado Early Intervention and works closely with Children’s Hospital Colorado. Judy is also the co-founder of Feeding Littles, an online training program for parents and therapists.

Moderator: Adena Dacy, MS, CCC-SLP, Associate Director, Clinical Issues in Speech-Language Pathology at ASHA

School Setting

Panelist: Marianne E. Gellert-Jones, MA, CCC-SLP, is a clinical feeding specialist and speech-language pathologist at the HMS School for Children With Cerebral Palsy. Ms. Gellert-Jones has been working in pediatrics for more than 30 years. She has spent her career focusing on providing speech-language, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), and feeding/dysphagia services within the pediatric population. Since October 1998, she has been on staff at the HMS School for Children With Cerebral Palsy, where she holds positions as both a speech-language pathologist and as the school’s clinical feeding specialist.

Moderator: Lisa Rai Mabry-Price, MS, CCC-SLP, Associate Director, School Services at ASHA

Resources

From ASHA

• Swallowing and Feeding Services in Schools During COVID-19 
• Aerosol Generating Procedures
• Considerations Regarding COVID-19 for Schools and Students with Disabilities
• Resuming In-Person Services During COVID-19: What to Consider as You Prepare
• Audiology and SLP Service Delivery Considerations in Early Intervention During Coronavirus
• Telepractice Resources During COVID-19
• Telepractice Documentation Data Checklist for School Based SLPs [PDF]
• Telepractice Checklist for School-Based Professionals [PDF]
• Using Masks for In-Person Service Delivery During COVID-19

From Other Organizations

• Coming to the Table (videos by Marianne Gellert-Jones, MA, CCC-SLP)
• Conducting Successful Feeding Therapy Over Telehealth: 9 Recommendations (MedBridge blog post by Vikas Grover, Lisa Velella, and Padmini Murthy)
• Delivering Pediatric Dysphagia/ Feeding Services via Telepractice  (web resource from Speech Pathology Australia)
• Telepractice and Early Intervention (video by Molly Wallace and Brooke Lambert)
• Feeding Matters Resource Library (comprehensive virtual hub of the latest research, articles, videos, and other resources on pediatric feeding disorder) 
• Telehealth Recommendations for Dysphagia Management During COVID-19 (helpful information from Purdue University’s Imaging, Evaluation, and Treatment [I-EaT] Research Lab)

References

Clark, R. R., Fischer, A. J., Lehman, E. L., & Bloomfield, B. S. (2019). Developing and implementing a telehealth enhanced interdisciplinary pediatric feeding disorders clinic: A program description and evaluation. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 31(2), 171–188. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-018-9652-7

Malandraki, G. A., Roth, M., & Sheppard, J. J. (2014). Telepractice for pediatric dysphagia: A case study. International Journal of Telerehabilitation, 6(1), 3–16.  https://doi.org/10.5195/ijt.2014.6135