Building A School-Based Team Feeding Program

Course overview

The number of students with severe disabilities being served in the school setting keeps rising across all grades. Many have feeding and swallowing difficulties putting them at risk for life-threatening complications, yet they still need to receive adequate nutrition/hydration during the day to benefit from their educational program. How do we address the needs of these students safely in the Educational rather than Medical setting? It takes the entire school staff from those in Administration to those working directly with the child to those preparing the food to develop a cohesive successful program. All must have an understanding of what Feeding Disorders are and what the implications can be. We must have a common vocabulary when discussing the child's needs, carry-over of appropriate accommodations and reliable preparation and classification of different food consistencies served. In this Introductory course aimed at staff-wide training, you will learn who is on the Feeding Team, each member's roles and responsibilities, and what part YOU play in keeping these students safe and healthy. We will practice identifying Red Flags for Feeding Problems, assessing a student's strengths and challenges in Feeding and we will even prepare and test the eight different levels of food consistencies established by the International Dysphagia Diet Standardization Initiative (IDDSI). You will be trained in recognizing and evaluating different food consistencies right there in the cafeteria or classroom. Finally, we will put it all together by designing an Individual Feeding Plan that addresses the identified needs of a given student. Be prepared for a day of enjoyable, laughter-filled, interactive learning and come away excited to help your students flourish! (Parts of this course may get messy, so please dress accordingly.)