ARK's Blog

Question:  I am a speech therapist who works mostly with adults but a little in early intervention.  I currently have a two-year-old who was fed and is still fed quite a bit through a feeding tube, but who is able to chew and eat solid food now. However, she has a habit with all solid foods of taking one bite and then sucking the rest until she is either able to swallow it or she sp …

      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 …

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 …

Question:  Good afternoon!  I'm a speech therapist working on straw drinking with a child who has Autism. We've done the first 3 steps of your How to Teach Straw Drinking blog post, but cannot proceed to the 4th because the child does not know what it means in general to take a sip.  I cannot think of anything else to do.  He closes the lips around the straw but doesn …