A Sensory Approach to Experience Taste, Texture, & Develop Oral-Motor Control
Many children have significant mealtime difficulties that often impact the whole family. Being called a “fussy eater” may not truly cover the real challenges that some children experience when it comes to eating.
A child with sensory integration issues, mild to severe, may display difficulty with sitting at the table, touching the food, food texture or smells, adequately chewing, being able to try or accept new food items, use of utensils or cups, being able to handle the distractions of eating in a distracting environment such as at a school dining room or at a restaurant, and the list goes on.
When we start to talk about mealtime issues that a child may be having, we need to look at how a child is processing and interpreting sensory information. Each child is different, although most parents and caregivers’ express similar areas where they and the child needs support and guidance.
For many adults, when it comes to preparing and serving foods, it is often frustrating and a source of anxiety when your child will not eat what you serve, only eat specific limited food items, only eats in certain situations, or is unable to tolerate any change or addition to their normal accepted diet.
This book, “A Sensory Approach to Experiencing Taste, Textures, & Develop Oral-Motor Control” covers
· An Introduction to Making Positive Changes
· Developing a Food and Behavior Diary
· Medical Assessment for Concerns
· Choking Hazard Safety
· Feeding and Oral-Motor Components
· Tactile Sense / Touch
· Olfactory Sense / Smell
· Gustatory Sense / Taste
· Developing a Food and Behavior Diary
· Medical Assessment for Concerns
· Choking Hazard Safety
· Feeding and Oral-Motor Components
· Tactile Sense / Touch
· Olfactory Sense / Smell
· Gustatory Sense / Taste
· Proprioception and Oral Motor Awareness
· Planning for Sensory Approach to Feeding
· Food Strategies to Wake-Up the Mouth
· Food Strategies for Chewing Needs
· Food Strategies for Sensory Alerting and Need to Crunch
· Food Strategies for Sensory Alerting Without the Crunch
· Food Strategies for Sensory Needs for Biting, Grinding, Pulling/Tugging w/ Teeth
· Developing Sucking and Blowing Oral Motor Muscles
· Strategies for Developing Sucking Strength, Coordination and Control
· Strategies for Developing Oral Motor Control and Strength for Blowing
· Make Your Own Olfactory /Smell /Oral Motor /Taste Sensory Box
· Turn Gelatin into a Fun Activity: Sensory Taste-Testing
Author, Judy Benz Duncan has been an Occupational Therapist for over thirty years. She has worked with children from infants to teenagers in numerous settings that included early intervention, pre-school programs, grade school, home health, developmental training centers, and sensory integration clinics.
Judy developed the foundation for designing therapeutic activities and tasks using interactive play and creative imagination to engage the children at a level they could easily relate to while working toward the achievement of their Occupational Therapy program’s functional goals and treatment plan
Judy attended the University of Florida, University of Kansas, and the University of Tennessee. She received New York State approval as a Supplemental Evaluator for OT with early intervention and pre-school students, and has helped develop and start an OT program for families and children in New York. Judy continues to stay up-to-date in the clinical field through mentoring other OT students and new graduates.
She continues to contribute to children, families and professionals everywhere through her professional writing endeavors which include writing books and manuals, managing the therapeutic website, TheraPlay4Kids.com, writing OT blogs and topic-specific articles, working on "interactive story play" book series, writing bi-weekly professional blogs for a pediatric orthopedic surgeon group, a psychiatrist, and an attorney at law. She continues to be an active mentor of new OT graduates, as well as OT students.
