Easter Seals Disability Services

  Eating for Growing

“No single activity is as critical to the health, education and happiness of children with disabilities as feeding.”                                                                     
                                                                                                                         -Lowman & Murphy, 1999

 
Easter Seals Western Pennsylvania provides an outpatient pediatric therapeutic feeding program at our Corporate Office site.  This after school program is available to children ages three to eight, and is based on the principles of the SOS (Sequential-Oral-Sensory) Approach to Feeding, which has a 20-year proven history of effectiveness.  Typically developing children and children with disabilities can demonstrate feeding challenges which may include:  food refusals; limited range, number, or textures of foods; grazing or food jags; inability to transition to table foods, off the bottle, or from tube feeding; choking, gagging, or vomiting during meals; poor weight gain; and behavior problems or struggles around mealtimes.

Using a child-directed, “fun with food” philosophy, speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists combine to provide children in weekly group or individual sessions with sensory and oral-motor activities in a structured desensitization hierarchy, consistent with a developmental model.  Families observe activities and work concurrently on related skills under the guidance of a licensed social worker.  All transdisciplinary team members have received specialized and intensive training in the SOS Approach.

The initial phase of Eating for Growing has been made possible through the generous grant support of CVS Caremark All Kids Can.  As a result, the program is currently available at no cost to families.

To learn more about Eating for Growing, please contact Tiffany Mori, program social worker at:   

(412) 281-7244 X269
(800) 587-3257
tmori@westernpa.easterseals.com