Question
Are public schools responsible for working on feeding difficulties related to sensory issues?
Answer
Many say that eating and feeding therapy is not part of a school's responsibility or is not part of a child's educational day in school. But, if the student is not eating how is he/she getting enough nutrition in order to focus in the classroom? Are they participating with other children in the social aspect of eating?
I do believe that schools need to be responsible but the philosophy out there is that the teams of schools develop the feeding program and seek out medically-based services or input as needed from the child's pediatrician or the medical speech-language pathologist. How schools feel about feeding therapy and how they address it will be very different depending on which school you are in.
This Ask the Expert was taken from the course entitled: The Problem Eater: Picky Eating, Oral Sensory Issues, and Behavior Modification presented by Jennifer Dahms, M.S., CCC-SLP.
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Jennifer Dahms is a pediatric speech-language pathologist in Boise, Idaho. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. She has worked in pediatric outpatient clinics and Birth-to-Three programs in both Wisconsin and Idaho and currently has her own private practice, Valley Pediatric Feeding, LLC.
