Foundational Skills for Facilitating Eating, Drinking, and Swallowing Skills in Children

Course Outline

Children with special needs, especially those with cerebral palsy, are prone to eating, drinking, and swallowing challenges. If unattended, these problems could lead to serious medical conditions such as aspiration pneumonia. This course seeks to educate parents and caregivers with basic strategies to ensure swallow safety at home. It will also cover the identification of the signs of swallowing problems (dysphagia), so that timely medical consultation can be sought. Common food and fluid modifications as well as feeding and drinking utensils that may be recommended by the Speech Therapist and their uses will also be introduced.
This course does not replace a swallowing assessment by a speech therapist but it is to equip caregivers and educators with knowledge and skills that will enable them to identify signs of a swallowing problem and ensure swallow safety at home and in school.

Course Instructor

Ms. Sunitha Sendhilnathan is currently the Head of the Dept of Speech & Language Pathology at the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore. She holds a Master’s degree in Speech and Language Pathology and Psychology, in addition to a Diploma in Basic Developmental Therapy for children with Neurological Disorders. She has over 25 years of experience in the field and her area of clinical focus is childhood communication disorders including Cerebral Palsy and Autism Spectrum Disorders. Her main clinical interest is in the areas of providing management for children with Feeding and Swallowing issues. She runs the Feeding and Swallowing Clinic in CPAS, for assessing and providing management for children referred with Feeding and Swallowing issues. She is also certified in various Hanen approaches – It Takes Two to Talk, More Than Words, Learning Language and Loving It, Talkability, Target Words, and ABS and Beyond; Neuro Developmental Therapy (NDT) for pediatrics, DIR (202) Floortime Approach, Sequential Oral Sensory (SOS) Approach to Feeding, PROMPT technique, and numerous other workshops and trainings. She has conducted several trainings for caregivers, parents and peer professionals, and presented in various national and international conferences.

Ms Jie Ean Loh is a Speech and Language Pathologist from Singapore. She completed her Master of Speech Pathology at Curtin University in Australia. She has previously received training within the paediatric and adult population in a multidisciplinary setting in Perth Australia. She is currently working with school aged clients in CPAS School. Jie Ean is certified in PECS, Hanen, PROMPT, and Tech Talkers Series. She has also attended various workshops on Feeding and Swallowing. She has conducted parent/teacher workshops on topics such as Communication Using AAC (Introduction and Advanced), and an intensive caregiver training series on equipping parents with basic skills in implementing AAC at home with their children. She is currently working on a project to equip teachers in classroom on using a classroom amplification system.

Terms and Conditions
– Parents / Caregivers are required to fill in the CTG Application form, and provide the necessary documents stated in the form as required by AIC.
– Registration will be confirmed only upon receiving invoice or full payment.
– If the participant is absent without valid reason or without supporting document, full course fees will be charged with no refund