Nutrition Considerations in Pediatric Feeding is a 4-hour continuing education course designed to help feeding therapists understand how nutrition intersects with feeding skill development, oral intake progression, and family-centered care.

Feeding therapists frequently support children with limited volume, variety, or nutritional adequacy, yet many clinicians report uncertainty in how to integrate nutrition concepts into therapy sessions without increasing pressure around eating. This course provides a practical overview of pediatric nutrition as it relates to feeding therapy, emphasizing collaboration, realistic expectations, and developmentally appropriate support.

Participants will learn how to:

• Understand foundational nutrition concepts relevant to pediatric feeding therapy

• Recognize how nutritional needs intersect with feeding skill development and oral intake progression

• Apply nutrition-informed reasoning when considering volume, variety, and balance

• Collaborate effectively with caregivers and nutrition professionals

• Support families in understanding nutrition goals while maintaining responsive, child-led feeding practices
  
  

This course serves as a foundational component of the Pediatric Feeding Intensive and prepares participants to thoughtfully integrate nutrition considerations into oral motor assessment and functional feeding intervention planning.

Laying the Foundation: Identifying Oral Motor Performance Deficits is a 4-hour continuing education course designed to strengthen clinicians’ observational skills and clinical reasoning related to oral motor performance in pediatric feeding.

Accurately recognizing oral motor performance deficits is essential to designing effective intervention plans. However, many clinicians report uncertainty in distinguishing oral motor challenges from sensory, behavioral, or experiential feeding concerns. This course focuses on improving clarity in identifying and describing oral motor performance during functional feeding activities.

Participants will learn how to:

• Observe and describe oral motor performance during feeding, eating, drinking, and swallowing

• Recognize oral motor performance deficits that may impact safety, efficiency, and intake progression

• Differentiate oral motor challenges from sensory or behavioral feeding presentations

• Understand how oral motor performance influences clinical decision-making

• Communicate oral motor findings clearly with caregivers and interdisciplinary team members
  
  

This course provides the clinical foundation necessary for effective intervention planning and pairs intentionally with Bridging the Gap: From Feeding Challenges to Functional Oral Intake, where participants will learn how to target identified oral motor performance deficits within functional feeding contexts.

Bridging the Gap: From Feeding Challenges to Functional Oral Intake is a 6-hour continuing education course designed to help clinicians translate previously identified oral motor performance deficits into skilled, functional feeding interventions that support meaningful increases in oral intake.

While this course does not focus on the evaluation or identification of oral motor performance deficits, it addresses a common clinical challenge: knowing what to do next once oral motor challenges have been identified. Participants will learn how to target oral motor performance deficits within the functional context of feeding, using food, flavors, and mealtime activities to support improvements in volume, variety, safety, and interest in eating.

This course emphasizes how oral motor skill development must be intentionally paired with functional feeding experiences in order to impact intake. Participants will learn how to:

• Design interventions that target oral motor performance deficits through functional feeding activities

• Progress oral motor skill building from performance-focused work into real-world feeding contexts

• Implement graded, child-led strategies to safely increase oral intake during sessions and at home

• Develop practical home program recommendations that support carryover and progression

• Recognize signs of safety that guide the progression and modification of food trials during therapy sessions and within recommended home practice

• Incorporate responsive feeding principles that promote autonomy, awareness, and safety

• Engage and coach parents as active partners and primary facilitators of change
  
  

Content highlights the importance of recognizing the small, foundational steps that come before food expansion, providing clinicians with actionable strategies to bridge oral motor performance challenges to functional oral intake. This course applies to infants, medically complex children, sensory and behavioral eaters, and older children across a wide range of pediatric feeding presentations.

This one hour mini session will focus on introduction and application of a concise 1-2 page tool that supports occupational therapy practitioners in determining focus areas of feeding intervention, goal writing, parent education and how to focus and progress feeding goals following a feeding evaluation.

This one hour mini course will introduce participants to the capstone project and tool: Occupational Therapy Clinical Practice Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers with Feeding Difficulties. This practical tool includes definitions of feeding difficulties, typical development and feeding progression trajectories, and research / evidence based considerations when providing feeding evaluation and intervention to support best practice for 0-5 populations.