Foundation Skills in Handling Children with Food Refusal Issues

Course Outline

Children with special needs are more inclined to picky-eating and food refusal. When their food refusal becomes severe, it could result in food jag (eating only one food or the same types of food for all meals). This course aims to equip caregivers with a basic level of knowledge and skills to reduce food refusal behaviors in children. Children with special needs may have underlying sensory issues which may lead to their food refusal behaviors. Parents and caregivers will learn strategies to deal with these issues to help their children accept a wider variety of food.

Course Instructor

Ms Yvette Lam is a Senior Speech and Language Pathologist with Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore (CPAS). She completed her Masters in Speech and Language Pathology at the National University of Singapore’s Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. Yvette is trained in Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), DIR Floortime, Hanen It Takes Two to Talk, PROMPTs for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets (PROMPT), and the Sequential Oral Sensory (SOS) Approach to Feeding. She has worked with children aged 1 to 18 at CPAS. Her areas of practice include language delays and disorders, speech sound delays and disorders, Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), literacy, social communication, feeding and swallowing. She works closely with teachers on implementing language building as well as feeding and swallowing strategies in the classroom setting. She also provides support to parents and caregivers in incorporating the recommended activities into the child’s daily routine at home for greater consistency and continuity.

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.

Ms Jaya Gopinath is practicing as a Senior Occupational Therapist since 2000 and has been working in Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore (CPAS) since 2015. She performed responsibilities in early intervention and adult rehabilitation such as evaluating rehabilitative needs, using appropriate assessment tools and developing customized treatment plans and goals, and delivering appropriate therapy interventions to help children to overcome difficulties and stressors. She also provides clinical services within a team structure to support children, with cerebral palsy and other disabilities namely developmental delay, autism, downs syndrome and other chromosomal syndrome to meet their identified needs. She has an in-depth understanding of the diverse treatment modalities. She has served clients in feeding clinic along with multi-disciplinary team and specialized knowledge and skills in feeding, eating, and swallowing for Occupational Therapy Practice.

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

Withdrawal from the Registered Class
– Notification of withdrawal must be given via email to CPAS at least 8 weeks before the course commencement date. There will be an admin fee chargeable for late withdrawal:

• Notification received from 6 weeks before commencement of course – 50% of full course fee
• Notification received from 4 weeks before commencement of course – 75% of full course fee
• Notification received less than 4 weeks before commencement of course – 100% of full course fee
• No refunds will be given for non-attendance of workshop