speech and feeding therapy

Therapy We Offer

Pediatric speech.

We offer a variety of pediatric speech and language therapy including articulation, childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), early intervention (Birth - 3), and much more.

Pediatric Occupational

We offer a variety of pediatric occupational therapy including fine motor, motor coordination, sensory processing, daily living, self-feeding, handwriting and much more.

Adult Speech

Our therapists are trained in SPEAK OUT! for Parkinson's patients. We also work with a variety of speech, language, cognitive, and dysphagia diagnoses.

We offer feeding therapy for medically challenged, picky eaters, breast and bottle feeding difficulties, NICU graduates, pre and post tongue tie revision, and any child exhibiting overall feeding difficulties.  We also offer the SOS approach to feeding.  We have trained TOTS therapists on staff!

Absolutely love the service we have received in both feeding therapy and physical therapy. They listen. They observe. They treat. Best of all, they teach and explain to parents! My preemie baby has gained weight he needs and is starting to use his muscles the way he should be!

• Testimonials

Children's Speech and Feeding Therapy

Founded by Arden Hill and Marnie Millington in 2003, Children’s Speech & Feeding Therapy is a small clinic serving children with communication and feeding disorders in Needham, Newton, Metro West and the greater Boston area. We also support a number of families who live across New England.  Our committed team of speech-language pathologists shares our passion and focus on improving children’s skills. We work hard to support families and to empower caregivers through training, education, and one-on-one support. Our services include creating thorough treatment plans to support school therapists, medical caregivers, and families.

All of our Speech-Language Pathologists have completed the “Diagnosis and Management of Childhood Apraxia of Speech Using Dynamic Tactile and Temporal Cueing" online course taught by Edythe Strand, PhD CCC-SLP through the Once Upon a Time Foundation as well as the in-person advanced training workshop on treatment of children with CAS.

We follow the best practice guidelines from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) for intervention. We are committed to techniques and methods that are supported by research. Our staff of state and nationally certified clinicians receives continued training and hands-on education throughout their tenure at our clinic.

We are Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Harvard Pilgrim providers.

We provide speech, language and feeding therapy for children from infancy to adolescence. All our speech and language sessions are provided in a one-on-one environment, with appointments lasting forty five minutes. Forty minutes of direct therapy are given to our children. This is followed by five minutes of training, questions & answers, and feedback to parents/caregivers.

We provide individual feeding therapy sessions. As with communication work, individual feeding sessions are 45 minutes in length.

We work with children with speech, language and/or feeding disorders. This includes but is not limited to: children who have been diagnosed with specific language impairment, phonological disorder, speech and/or language delay, Childhood Apraxia of Speech, stuttering, dysarthria, voice disorder, pragmatic language deficits, tongue thrust, and residual articulation disorders.

In some circumstances, these speech and language conditions have resulted from primary diagnoses of neurological damage, Down syndrome, and Autism. Feeding diagnoses include feeding difficulties and failure-to-thrive.

We are Blue Cross Blue Shield and Harvard Pilgrim Providers. If families subscribe to these insurances then we bill these plans directly on their behalf. As each policy differs considerably, we ask that parents check with their companies to determine if prior authorization/referral is required, whether there is a deductible on your policy, etc. Families who carry insurance coverage from other companies (e.g., Cigna, Aetna, Tufts, etc.) come to our clinic and pay privately. Once we have received payments, we provide detailed invoices including both procedure and diagnostic codes so that families may go back and request reimbursement from their companies directly.

Contact Us:

Phone (781) 400-5305

Fax (781) 400-5839

We are located in Needham Heights

464 Hillside Avenue

Needham MA 02494

Free parking!

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Recent Posts

• Navigating the Overlap of PFD and ARFID
• The challenges and triumphs of breastfeeding with PFD: Addressing common concerns and offering expert advice
• The silent struggle of PFD: Why the prevalent pediatric disorder continues to be under-diagnosed and under-discussed
• Adapted baby-led weaning: A game-changer for pediatric feeding disorder
• Navigating pediatric feeding disorder in rural America: One mom’s journey

7 tips for SLPs to improve support for children with PFD and their families

Published by Stephanie Cohen, M.A., CCC-SLP, CLC on May 15, 2024

The perspective on feeding therapy from a speech-language pathologist

When a child struggles with eating or eats differently than parents expect, it impacts the entire family. That’s because eating is about so much more than the variety and quantity of foods we consume. It’s about giving and receiving love, celebration, enjoyment, connection, learning, socialization, sensory experiences, fine motor skills and communication.

As clinicians who learn the technical aspects of eating, we sometimes view feeding through a medical lens. To better help families struggling with pediatric feeding disorder (PFD) though, we need to widen our perspective and consider a child’s eating in the context of their family and environment.

Of course, safety and nutrition are of primary importance. But to best serve families, we can’t evaluate and support feeding skills without also understanding how specific feeding challenges impact each family.

I recently worked with a client who was born prematurely at 24 weeks gestation. Prior to her birth, her mother spent four weeks in the hospital on bed rest. For this family, the stress and trauma related to their baby’s health began before she was even born.

After she was born, this little girl spent five months in the NICU and required surgeries, intubation, an NG tube and ultimately, a g-tube. The need for multiple medical interventions meant early experiences around feeding and bonding didn’t happen as expected for this family.

By the time I met them through Early Intervention (EI), feeding still felt very medicalized to her parents. Her parents adhered to a strict tube feeding schedule (as they were directed to do by her medical team) and desperately tried to find a formula that didn’t cause her to throw up after each feeding. There were few opportunities to learn her hunger cues, cuddle together while she ate or share love around mealtimes. Her parents felt powerless, confused and frustrated.

We began with conversations about what her family wanted their mealtimes to feel like. This helped them shift their lens to think about how to help their daughter feel comfortable and ready to learn. We talked about what she might enjoy. Of course, we continued to consider her complex medical needs, but together, we were also able to shift our focus to helping her feel safe, building trust between her and her parents, supporting her internal motivation to explore and learn and letting her explore at her own pace. Once she felt better, she became a very curious baby at mealtimes!

Her parents took time to learn that the goal of mealtime doesn’t have to be the specific number of ounces or calories. Instead, they began the journey to help their daughter discover what was right for her body. They were encouraged by small indicators of change, such as getting messy while exploring food and putting a spoon into her mouth independently.

Their focus became celebrating each learning experience.

Not every client I work with is so complex, but my approach to feeding therapy always remains the same: family-centered, responsive feeding.

Below are seven important tips for clinicians supporting children and families to keep in mind:

In their book Pre-Feeding Skills , Suzanne Evans Morris and Marsha Dunn Klein describe this caregiver-child interaction at mealtimes as a dance. Families move, interact, and learn in response to each other. Considering that infants eat 8-12 times per day and toddlers eat 5-8 times per day, this makes eating the activity that families spend the most time doing together.

Relationships matter in feeding therapy, and supporting parents’ and children’s communication around mealtimes is key to facilitating trust.

Understanding a child’s communication is a gamechanger in feeding therapy. PFD can co-occur with over 300 different diagnoses. That means many children with PFD also experience speech, language and hearing challenges that can further complicate feeding. When a child has difficulty clearly communicating with their caregiver, that caregiver may misinterpret mealtime behavior. Behavior is communication. Let’s work with parents to better understand what their children are telling us about how they feel about their experience. Are they communicating that something is not working? Do they need us to make a modification in order to help them feel more comfortable and ready for learning? When we seek to understand a child’s communication, we can also support parents in knowing how to respond appropriately.

As clinicians, we can inadvertently add to the stress and anxiety parents feel when we focus solely on quantity and volume goals.

The truth is that success is not always measured by the number of calories consumed. Instead, we can celebrate a child feeling comfortable enough to explore a new food or a caregiver who helps a child participate in family mealtimes in the way that’s right for them.

Acknowledge that it’s not our job to get a child to eat. Although we need to carefully monitor a child’s nutritional status with the help of a child’s medical team, focusing on “getting” them to eat shouldn’t be the goal of feeding therapy. Instead, it’s our job to collaborate with caregivers and support a child’s autonomy, internal motivation and ability to learn. We can offer opportunities and then let a child show us what works for them at that moment.

Make asking about feeding part of your evaluation routine. It would be an incredible service to so many families if we regularly asked about mealtime routines even when we meet a family with other primary concerns related to communication or other diagnoses that impact development. Because we know how prevalent pediatric feeding disorder is, we can facilitate earlier access to feeding support in early intervention and beyond.

When in doubt, check it out. It’s not unusual to hear from families that another provider told them their child will grow out of a feeding concern. Parents know their children best. If a parent feels there is a problem, then there’s an issue to address –– even if it’s minor. Let’s give parents access to information and resources when they need it most. We know that for the children who are struggling, ignoring the issue can have a negative impact on family routines, interactions, and ultimately family life as a whole.

Families do best with a team approach to PFD Many caregivers worry about whether their child with PFD is eating what they need in order to grow. Some parents may overestimate their child’s needs and underestimate their child’s intake.When we collaborate with pediatricians, registered dietitians and other professionals, we can gather specific data that helps us understand whether a child is consuming what they need to grow and thrive. This information helps us make informed decisions and often helps lower stress for parents, ultimately helping them feel more comfortable letting their child learn at their own pace. We can also collaborate with other professionals to help us explore the impact of medical conditions on eating and the psychosocial factors associated with family feeding experiences.

Feeding success looks different for every child, but with the right support, we can empower parents to be their child’s best teacher by supporting emotional connection and individualized earning.

Stephanie Cohen is an experienced SLP and private practice owner in the Chicagoland area and co-founder and co-director of the Chicago Feeding Group , a nonprofit supporting children with pediatric feeding disorder and their families and providing responsive feeding-focused education for both families and professionals. Find her at www.learntotalkwithme.com.

Copyright © 2024 Feeding Matters

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The Benefits of Speech Therapy

What to expect, frequently asked questions.

A speech-language pathologist (SLP) can help you with speech, language, and swallowing. They provide speech therapy to children and adults who may have speech or language disorders.

People with certain medical conditions may also benefit from speech therapy. Medical conditions that may cause speech or swallowing impairment include traumatic brain injury , stroke (brain damage due to a blood vessel blockage or bleed), and dementia (decline in memory and thinking functions).

This article looks at the various uses for speech therapy, what to expect during a session, and the techniques involved in this type of therapy. 

Verywell / Theresa Chiechi

Speech therapy can help with a variety of conditions.

Speech Disorders

Speech therapy may help with speech disorders like:

• Stuttering : Stuttering may involve repeating parts of words, prolonging words, or struggling to get out certain words. You may be more likely to have a stutter if you have a family history of stuttering.
• Apraxia : This motor speech disorder makes it difficult to move the tongue and lips to make sounds required for speech. In some cases, people with apraxia cannot speak at all. Causes for this disorder include brain tumors, dementia, stroke, and any other condition that causes brain injury.
• Voice : Voice disorders can be temporary or permanent and make it hard to speak. Chronic voice disorders include chronic cough, vocal fold paralysis, vocal polyps (growths on the vocal cords), and spasmodic dysphonia (vocal cord spasms).
• Dysarthria : People with this speech disorder have muscle weakness that makes it difficult to talk. They may slur or mumble their words. Dysarthria can happen due to brain injury or chronic degenerative conditions like Parkinson’s disease or Huntington’s disease .

Language Disorders

A language disorder ( aphasia ) is a condition that makes it difficult for a person to read, write, speak, or understand speech or other modes of communication. 

Someone with this type of disorder may struggle to:

• Use incorrect words for things
• Say complete sentences 
• Understand what other people say
• Understand jokes
• Read or spell 

Brain tumors, traumatic brain injuries, and degenerative disorders that affect cognitive function can all cause aphasia.

Feeding and Swallowing Disorders

Feeding and swallowing disorders can occur in both children and adults. A feeding disorder involves trouble with eating, sucking, drinking from a cup, or chewing. The specific term for swallowing disorders is dysphagia . Children or adults with dysphagia have trouble swallowing food or drink. 

Problems swallowing or feeding may or may not be related to a medical condition. Conditions that may cause a swallowing or feeding disorder include:

• Cleft palate or cleft lip
• Asthma and other breathing issues
• Heart disease
• Premature birth
• Nervous system disorders
• Reflux 
• Muscle weakness 
• Sensory issues
• Autism  
• Behavior problems
• Certain medications

Speech therapy begins with an evaluation to assess your difficulties and whether any structural issues contribute to your speech, language, feeding, or swallowing problems. An evaluation may involve a standardized test to help determine what you most need help with. Informal conversations may also help figure out your needs. 

A speech-language pathologist will then work with you to help improve your ability to speak, converse, or swallow. This may involve:

• Educating you on how to do certain things like articulating or pronouncing sounds
• Teaching you language skills
• Providing you with educational materials
• Giving you exercises to help strengthen your muscles 
• Giving you exercises that help you breathe better
• Participation in group therapy sessions 

You should also expect to practice the skills and exercises you learn in speech therapy sessions at home. Your speech-language pathologist may provide you with workbooks, worksheets, or virtual apps for at-home practice.

Speech Therapy for Adults

Depending on the reason you’re seeking out speech therapy, a speech-language pathologist may:

• Help you learn to move your muscles correctly to make sounds if you have apraxia or dysarthria
• Teach you how to use your breath to speak louder if you have dysarthria
• Help you learn to manage stuttering by teaching you to lower stress levels in certain situations
• Help you strengthen your mouth muscles to make it easier to swallow and eat if you have a feeding or swallowing disorder due to a brain injury or disease

Speech Therapy for Children

A speech-language pathologist’s approach will depend on the child. When working with a child who has a feeding or swallowing disorder, they might focus on:

• Strengthening the muscles of the mouth
• Helping the child with chewing
• Encouraging the child to try new food and drink
• Changing food texture to make it easier to swallow food 
• Helping with sensory issues related to food

Other skills a speech-language pathologist may work on with a child include:

• Language complexity : For example, they might teach words like "and" and "or" to connect ideas within sentences.
• Conversation skills : This may include role-playing to help the child with socialization and improve their read of social cues. 
• Vocabulary : They may use games or storytelling to help build the child’s vocabulary. 
• Phonological awareness : This recognition of the sounds that make up words is an important skill for reading. The SLP may work on helping the child identify sounds and rhymes in words to build this skill.

Healthcare professionals will also test your child’s hearing to see if hearing loss may be contributing to language and speech issues.

If you or your child is getting speech therapy from a qualified speech-language pathologist, you might wonder how likely it is that you’ll see improvement in speech, language, or feeding. 

Results will depend on the individual. It’s also essential to follow the exercises, tips, and strategies provided by the speech-language professional. Regular visits and keeping up with practice activities and exercises make it more likely to see an improvement in yourself or your child. 

A speech-language pathologist works with children or adults who have speech, language, or feeding and swallowing disorders. Typically the first session will involve an evaluation to determine the areas that are causing you the most problems. 

From there, they may teach you exercises and strategies to improve your speech, language, or ability to swallow and eat. 

A Word From Verywell

Think you or your child would benefit from speech therapy? Get in touch with your primary healthcare provider and ask for a recommendation. You can also use the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s (ASHA)  Find a Certified SLP Tool . 

Not all children develop at the same rate, but if your child has issues understanding language, doesn’t use gestures, or doesn’t seem to be learning new words, you might consider having them evaluated by a speech therapist. 

While this may depend on the individual and the cause of speech-related problems, research suggests that speech and language therapy can significantly improve speech and language issues.

One example of a typical speech therapy technique is articulation therapy. This technique teaches the person to make specific sounds, sometimes by showing them how to move their mouth or tongue.

A language delay is when a child has difficulty in speaking and understanding speech that is unusual for their age.

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Stuttering .

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Apraxia of speech in adults .

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Voice disorders .

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Dysarthria .

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Aphasia .

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Feeding and swallowing disorders in children .

Brainline. Speech therapy .

Understood for All. What is speech therapy .

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Languages and speech disorders in children .

Broomfield J, Dodd B. Is speech and language therapy effective for children with primary speech and language impairment? Report of a randomized control trial . Int J Lang Commun Disord . 2011;46(6):628-640. doi:10.1111/j.1460-6984.2011.00039.x

Nemours Children's Health. Speech-language therapy .

By Steph Coelho Steph Coelho is a freelance health and wellness writer and editor with nearly a decade of experience working on content related to health, wellness, mental health, chronic illness, fitness, sexual wellness, and health-related tech.She's written extensively about chronic conditions, telehealth, aging, CBD, and mental health. Her work has appeared in Insider, Healthline, WebMD, Greatist, Medical News Today, and more.

What is Feeding Therapy?

What is Feeding Therapy

Feeding therapy is an intervention where a trained feeding specialist helps a client who has difficulty either eating food, or trying new food. Feeding therapy is typically carried out by a speech-language pathologist or an occupational therapist who specializes in the area of feeding.

Feeding therapy can be implemented as early as 4 to 6 months of age. The first step is determining whether or not professional help is needed.

When to call:

I encourage any parent that I talk to who has a concern with their child’s feeding to at the very least have a conversation with a feeding therapist. If the parent is at the point where they are actually concerned, and a vocalizing their concerns, there is usually good reason.

Where to look for getting feeding therapy

Talk to your pediatrician and express your concerns

Look up speech language pathologist or an occupational therapist who specializes in feeding in your area

Depending on the age, call the early intervention program in your state (your pediatrician can guide you here, or you can reach out to your states local parent helpline).

First step to take to start feeding therapy

The first step to starting feeding therapy is to get a comprehensive evaluation.

The professional you are working with the will carry out an evaluation to see where the area of deficits are occurring that are causing the feeding behaviors you are seeing. Some parents may say, “oh he’s just stubborn”, or “I used to be a picky eater he’s just like me”. This may be true, however; there also may be an underlying reason for the stubbornness. Some of the underlying reasons may stem from issues with the child’s ability to physically chew and swallow food, and their sensory systems ability to tolerate and enjoy food.

What a feeding evaluation looks like:

The professional you are working with will look into the following:

• Feeding history
• Current state of eating
• How the child is chewing  
• How the child is drinking
• The structure of the child’s mouth
• Their dentition
• What they look like when they are eating
• Behaviors that occur before/during/after meal times
• The family’s meal time dynamics
• The family’s relationship to how the child eats.

What feeding therapy can look like

Feeding therapy is very unique to each individual’s needs. Here is a list of some of the more common areas that are addressed in feeding therapy

• Talking about food
• Discussing feelings around foods and meal time
• Exploring without eating it ( see this post for what exploring food can look like )
• How to modify foods to fit the child’s oral sensory-motor needs
• Building up the child’s oral sensory-motor skills necessary for eating
• Building up the child’s emotional well being and outlook around new foods

After the feeding therapy session

The most important part to feeding therapy is carryover. You and your feeding therapist will come up with attainable goals you can work on during the week. These could be exercises, or attempts at exploring new foods.

Mindset is everything

The parent AND the child must believe the child can succeed at feeding therapy. Years of combat at the dinner table will not be reversed in two weeks. Most of the children I see have had months or even years of power struggles with parents, and extreme frustration around food. An overall shift in how you as the parent consistently present food, and encourage your child to eat must occur. This is challenging and will most likely take time. With time, the right professional collaboration, and a whole lot of patience, parents can most certainly become the best feeding therapist for their child.

Related Articles

• How to Teach Your Toddler to Use Sign Language
• How to Teach Your Child to Talk Using Play Doh
• 5 Quick Tips to Help Your Baby Talk
• How to Help Toddlers Follow Directions – First/Then
• Eliminating the Tooth Brush Battle with Your Toddler

For more speech and language tips, follow Speech and Feeding Kids on YouTube.

About the Author

DRAKE HASTINGS M.S., CCC-SLP

Drake Hastings is a speech-language pathologist who specializes in speech, oral motor, and feeding therapy for kids. Drake has a passion for working with children and families while helping children achieve goals using a fun and motivating approach to learning.

Drake’s main areas of focus within the practice are feeding therapy, and speech (sound production) therapy. Drake has experience working with children who are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Apraxia of Speech, Dysarthria, Down Syndrome, and rare genetic disorders. Drake has experience working and collaborating with a wide variety of families and therapeutic team members while treating children of all ages.