Today was another whirlwind day where I engaged in 12 different sessions! For the most part, the kids I saw today has either oral sensory issues or were somewhere on the Autism spectrum. I got to be a lot more involved with the kids, rather than just observing. This included talking with the kids and helping them in the activities alongside the therapist.
I found the three feeding patients especially interesting, even though I couldn’t be as involved with them. Two of the kids I saw today had hyper-sensitive oral sensory processing. This means that they may gag easily or become anxious or upset with new or nonpreferred textures, tastes, and temperatures of food. The kids I saw were all anxious about new foods and are very sensitive to the textures and tastes of new foods. During these sessions, we tried to distract the kids (to reduce anxiety/fear) or have a reward or point system involved to encourage them to try the food (Picture 1). The third kid (Picture 2) is almost 2 years old but has a very hard time with self-feeding. This means that he can eat from other people’s hands but has a hard time gripping and grabbing food and staying focused on bringing the food to his mouth. This session involved a lot of repetitive practice, hand-over-hand motions, and positive responses when he successfully ate.