ARK's Blog

Question:  Hi Debbie - I work at a school for children who have special needs.  I serve a lot of students (many tube-fed) who really crave oral stimulation to the point that it is difficult to get them to do anything else with their hands.  We have awesome SLPs, but their main focus is more on communication.  I'm not so much looking for feeding preparation and support bec …

      As a feeding therapist, there are a lot of different tools in my therapy bag.  These are my favorites: . PROBE The  Probe is a simple but versatile tool for both feeding and oral motor applications. It was the very first product my husband and I made together 18 years ago, and it’s still a staple in my therapy bag today. The Probe has a white handle with a bl …

Chewelry is jewelry that's chewable (chew + jewelry = “chewelry”).  If you crave chewing on non-food items for any reason, chewable necklaces and bracelets are a way to safely satisfy that need (instead of chewing on other potentially harmful items like pencils, pens, shirts, toys, etc.). Why is chewelry needed?  Chewing can be a very effective way to calm and self- …

Most people know the Grabber, Y-Chew, and Guitar as non-food chewing tools that provide a safe alternative to nail biting, chewing on pencils, etc.   But did you know they can also be used to work on lots of different oral motor / feeding therapy goals?  . . Here are some of our favorite ways to incorporate the Grabber, Y-Chew, and/or Guitar into your oral motor / fe …