Melanie Potock

Presented Live In-Person by Melanie Potock, MA, CCC-SLP

Description:

By utilizing a “whole child, whole family” feeding approach, therapists can develop their own tool kit of strategies to customize treatment plans. Why do children have trouble eating? How are physiology, the sensory system, motor skills and behavior linked to a child’s desire to try new foods? How do family dynamics and parenting styles influence progress? Why is it that a child eats well in the clinic setting but cannot generalize those skills to the home and school? This course answers those questions while participants learn how to problem solve common roadblocks in eating and then continue to build progress by following a hierarchy of steps to success. Most importantly, this course emphasizes the importance of keeping the fun in feeding, while developing consistent positive behaviors at mealtimes, so that everyone in the family can enjoy their time together around the family table!

What you will learn:

Upon completing the 7-hour seminar, participants will be able to:

1. Discuss how protective behaviors develop when GI discomfort, sensory processing challenges, and delayed gross and/or fine motor skills impact a child’s willingness to eat
2. Teach gentle, basic parenting principles to support the caregiver’s carry-over of the child’s treatment plan
3. Implement strategies of responsive feeding in typical feeding development and guide the family to a responsive feeding model upon discharge
4. Apply gentle, basic behavioral principles in therapy while respecting a child’s unique sensory system, temperament, and emotions
5. Describe how to teach the following skills as they coincide with the developmental process of learning to eat: biting, chewing, swallowing independently, straw and open cup drinking
6. Implement a hierarchical method of problem solving to meet functional outcomes
7. Understand how to problem solve new challenges with future clients by systematically breaking the task into smaller steps and teaching one step at a time

Timed Agenda: 7 hours

The Whole Child (4 hours)

• Physiology: Body & Brain – 60 minutes
• Sensory Considerations & Strategies – 30 minutes
• (Break 15 minutes)
• Sensory Considerations & Strategies (cont.) – 30 minutes
• Motor Development & Skill Building – 60 minutes
• (Break for Lunch – time varies)
• Skill Building using Gentle Behavioral Principles – 60 minutes

The Whole Family (3 hours)

• Communication & Responsive Feeding of Solids – 30 minutes
• Nurturing Positive Behaviors – 60 minutes
• (Break 15 minutes)
• Family Relationships – 60 minutes
• Q & A /Closing remarks – 30 minutes

Who should attend?

Speech Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, Registered Dietitians, Pediatricians and other health professionals. Parents are welcome.

Presenter Bio:

Melanie Potock, MA, CCC-SLP, is an international speaker on the topic of feeding babies, toddlers and school age kids. She is the co-author of the award-winning Raising a Healthy Happy Eater: A Stage-by-Stage Guide to Setting Your Child on the Path to Adventurous Eating (2015) and the upcoming Responsive Feeding: The Baby-First Guide to Stress-Free Weaning, Healthy Eating, and Mealtime Bonding (Jan 2022). The tips in her activity cookbook for parents & kids, Adventures in Veggieland: Help Your Kids Learn to Love Vegetables with 100 Easy Activities and Recipes (2018) are based on the latest research and Melanie’s 20 years of success as a pediatric feeding therapist. Melanie’s children’s book You are Not an Otter takes preschoolers on a food adventure, exploring all the ways that various animals eat! Melanie’s advice has been shared in a variety of television and print media, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, CNN.com and Parents Magazine. Contact her at www.MelaniePotock.com and follow Mel on Instagram and Facebook too!

Financial: Melanie Potock, MA, CCC-SLP is the author of Adventures in Veggieland: Help Your Kids Learn to Love Vegetables with 100 Easy Activities and Recipes. Ms. Potock is the co-author of Raising a Healthy Happy Eater: A Stage-by-Stage Guide to Setting Your Child on the Path to Adventurous Eating, for which she receives royalty payments. She is the co-author of Baby Self-Feeding: Solid Food Solutions to Create Lifelong Healthy Eating Habits and was paid to write the book but does not receive royalties. She is the author of Happy Mealtimes with Happy Kids: How to Teach Your Child about the Joy of Food!, for which she receives royalties. Melanie is the executive producer of the children’s music CD titled Dancing in the Kitchen and profits from song purchases. Ms. Potock owns My Munch Bug, LLC and the online educational courses and profits from registrations online. Ms. Potock is an international speaker who presents a variety of courses and is paid to present these courses at various events. She owns a therapy practice for the assessment and treatment of feeding challenges in children and is paid for that service. She may receive a stipend for some articles that may appear online or in magazines.

Non-financial: Melanie Potock is a past-contributor to the American Speech Language Hearing Association’s blog, The ASHA Leader, and she was not compensated. She may not receive a stipend for some articles that appear online or in magazines and this varies month to month, depending on media needs. She is the co-author of Doctor Yum’s Preschool Food Adventure, a preschool food education curriculum and does not receive compensation for her role supporting that program.