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 Senior Principal Therapist and Head, 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 30 years of experience in the field and her area of clinical focus and interest is pediatric feeding disorders and childhood communication disorders including Cerebral Palsy and Autism Spectrum Disorders. She is instrumental in setting up the Feeding and Swallowing Clinic in CPAS, for a comprehensive management of clients with Feeding and Swallowing issues. She works closely with caregivers and teachers for embedding the strategies for promoting the necessary skills for safe feeding both at home and classroom. She is certified in Vitalstim therapy for swallowing, trained in SOS Approach to Feeding, and various other course related to pediatric feeding disorders. 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 ABC and Beyond. Further she is a certified practitioner in Neuro Developmental Therapy (NDT) for pediatrics , DIR (202) Floortime Approach, and trained in PROMPT technique, and numerous other courses. She is also a member in the Allied Health Professions Council’s Credential Committee and a recognised clinical educator for teaching students pursuing degree in speech and language pathology. She has conducted several trainings for caregivers, parents and peer professionals, and presented in various national and international conferences.

Ms Melanie Ding is a Speech and Language Pathologist with Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore (CPAS). She completed her Bachelor of Science (Speech Pathology) (Honours) at Curtin University in Australia. Melanie is trained in Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), Hanen More Than Words, Tech Talkers Series, and the Sequential Oral Sensory (SOS) Approach to Feeding. Her main areas of practice include Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), literacy, feeding and swallowing. She is currently working with children aged 7 to 18 at CPAS

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