Specialty Programs

Oral Motor / Feeding Therapy Programs

Whether your child is a "picky feeder", "problem eater", or transitioning from g-tubes to oral feedings, MPTC can help. Many children do not develop oral skills required to coordinate sucking and oral exploration during development due to medical reasons. A lack of oral skill development often leads to difficulties in feeding.

Some children are not born with feeding issues but develop feeding problems due to sensory impairments, sensory-motor impairments, or failure to thrive. These children have oral aversion, limited food choices, poor appetite, poor intake, or weight gain. They might also be transitioning from g-tubes to oral feeds. After an extensive evaluation with an occupational therapist and speech pathologist, the best individualized treatment approach in chosen and implemented.

Our staff is trained to provide individual and group feeding therapy following a systematic desensitization feeding therapy model developed by Dr. Kay Toomey: (SOS) Sensory Oral Sequential method. In addition, our staff is trained in various other feeding treatment strategies including but not limited to those programs developed by Pamela Marshalla, Diane Chapman Bahr, Rona Alexander, Lori Overland, M.S. CCC-SLP, Talk Tools, and Mealtime Strategies by Suzanne Evans Morris.