ASHA Learning Pass

The field of pediatric feeding and swallowing requires clinicians to determine the significance of physiologic aberrations and whether these findings warrant intervention. This session describes the evidence to assist in answering questions like: Is a swallow that initiates in the pyriform sinuses “delayed” and the source of a child’s impairment? Is coughing during a feed a clear sign of aspiration that warrants instrumental assessment and conservative management? What is the significance of stress cues during a feed? This session addresses these types of questions by exploring the literature relating to clinical and fluoroscopic characteristics of how healthy, non-dysphagic infants eat. The session is designed for clinicians with experience in infant feeding and swallowing but also is appropriate for clinicians new to this area of practice.

This course is a recorded session from the 2023 ASHA online conference Rethinking Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing.

Related Courses

See more sessions from Rethinking Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing.

Learning Outcomes
You will be able to:

• Identify which of the following clinical findings is/are commonly observed in healthy, non-dysphagic infants: coughing, turning blue, making gurgling sounds, anterior bolus loss, increased work of breathing, and stress cues
• Describe a “normal” response to aspiration during the neonatal period and how this changes with maturation

Presenter Information

Katlyn E. McGrattan, PhD, CCC-SLP, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota with a clinical appointment at Masonic Children’s Hospital. She completed doctoral training in Health & Rehabilitation Science at the Medical University of South Carolina and post-doctoral training in Neonatal Gastroenterology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Her research focuses on the use of refined physiologic assessment to identify impairments in neonatal upper aerodigestive physiology and apply targeted therapeutic interventions to maximize treatment effect.

Financial Disclosures:

• Grant funding from NIH, NICHD
• Financial compensation from ASHA for this presentation
• Assistant professor at University of Minnesota

Nonfinancial Disclosures:

• None

Assessment Type

Self-assessment—Think about what you learned and report on the Completion Form how you will use your new knowledge.

To earn continuing education credit, you must complete and submit the learning assessment by the end date below.

Program History and CE Information

Online conference dates: March 22–April 3, 2023, November 29–December 11, 2023
End date: June 10, 2029

This course is offered for 0.1 ASHA CEUs (Intermediate level, Professional area).