Feeding assessments are carried out either in the Adelaide clinic or via Telehealth for families Australia wide and Internationally. Initial in-clinic assessments are carried out in 2 x 60 minutes sessions by one of our Feeding Therapists and include comprehensive evaluation and assessment of:
- Your child’s feeding, medical and developmental history
- Current challenges/difficulties related to feeding and feeding behaviours
- Your child’s current eating and drinking capacity (tube or oral), mealtime and/or eating skills (including oral motor, oral structures, oral sensory, gross & fine motor)
- Your child’s response to new or non-preferred foods
- Your child’s response to strategies/techniques/feeding equipment
- How your family interacts around food and mealtimes
- Our Dietitians assess current growth, currently accepted foods and possible nutritional deficits
- Our Speech Pathologists will also be able to carry out a clinical assessment of babies/children who have tongue tie or are at risk of aspiration and refer to appropriate medical services if deemed necessary.
- Our Occupational Therapists can undertake specific Sensory Preference assessments
For in-clinic assessments, we meet with parents/carers initially for an open discussion about your concerns and current challenges at mealtimes and gather all the necessary background information. On the second appointment we will meet with you and your child and ask that you bring a range of accepted and more challenging foods to the appointment. We never force a child to eat anything they do not want to eat but we do engage in ‘play’ with the food to see how engaged they can become.
Teletherapy assessments are carried out via encrypted links to ensure privacy and we ask that you provide video footage of your mealtimes, your child eating and drinking or tube feeding prior to the assessment. Teletherapy assessments are 2 hours and not split into two assessment times. This time is used to gain a clear understanding of the challenges your family/child is facing, what you are currently introducing, discussion of themes observed in the pre-provided video footage and clear next steps.
Recommendations are provided on the day of the assessment, followed by a full written report, so that home follow up can occur.
