ASHA Learning Pass

Infants and young children with craniofacial differences are inherently at increased risk for feeding and swallowing challenges due to their anatomical variances, medical co-morbidities, and experiences with medical touch. This session explores functional interventions to maximize developmental feeding skills and swallowing safety in children from birth to 3 years old with a history of cleft lip, cleft palate, and/or craniofacial differences. The speaker discusses case studies from infancy and early intervention that utilize the pediatric feeding disorder criteria to guide differential diagnosis and develop an evidence-based functional intervention plan.

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 variances in typical feeding/swallowing patterns vs. atypical feeding/swallowing patterns
• Discuss the use of adaptive utensils and compensatory strategies to improve oral feeding quality and/or safety
• Describe commonly used interventions and the external evidence to support them

Presenter Information

Raquel Garcia, SLPD, CCC-SLP, CNT, BCS-S, is a trained craniofacial and feeding specialist who has worked in infant critical care units for the past 11 years. She has lectured at the national and state level on infant and pediatric feeding disorders. She graduated with her MS in communication disorders from Nova Southeastern University and her doctorate of speech-language pathology from Northwestern University. Her clinical interests include neonatal care, congenital heart disease, upper airway disorders, infant FEES, and parental health literacy.

Financial Disclosures:

• Assistant professor, Nova Southeastern University
• SLP, PRN, Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital
• Financial compensation from ASHA for this presentation

Nonfinancial Disclosures:

• ASHA Hispanic Caucus, Vice President of Professional Practices
• ASHA SIG 13 Coordinating Committee, Member at Large
• ASHA S.T.E.P. Mentor
• ASHA LDP Application Peer Reviewer
• Feeding Matters, Conference Committee
• NANT, Peer Reviewer
• Dysphagia Outreach Project (DOP) Volunteer
• Dysphagia Research Society, Social Media Committee

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: August 28, 2029

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