Overview

SOS Certification Program Benefits

• Opportunity to gain additional training and expertise in the use of the SOS Approach to Feeding program with the Participant’s clients.
• Individualized consultation and feedback on any challenging Cases presented, as given by an SOS Approach to Feeding expert staff member with possible direct consultation with Dr. Toomey.
• Additional education and professional coaching around the implementation of SOS Approach to Feeding tenets and techniques into the Participant’s own practice.
• Opportunity to understand how to use the SOS Approach to Feeding across a wide variety of settings and with various clinical populations through group mentoring and videotape review.
• Group mentoring and observation of fellow course participant’s clinical videotaped feeding therapy sessions allows for engaging in high level professional dialogue, as well as connecting with other like-minded colleagues in the field.
• Placed on a Preferred Providers Referral list (if desired) given first to families seeking Feeding Evaluation and Treatment in their home community.
• Opportunity to build a network with other therapists who specialize in Feeding Therapy to develop ongoing support and teaming abilities.
• Certification will be the first step required for any professionals wishing to engage in Research on the SOS Approach to Feeding program who will be requesting permission to publish using the Trademarked name – SOS Approach to Feeding.

Learning Objectives

Practitioners successfully completing the SOS Certification Program will be able to demonstrate competency in the following areas:

Global Understanding of SOS Principles

• Define and describe the four basic tenants of the SOS Approach to Feeding.
  1. Myths about Eating interfere with understanding and treating feeding problems.
  2. Systematic Desensitization is the best first approach to feeding treatment.
  3. Normal Development of feeding gives us the best blueprint for feeding treatment.
  4. Food Hierarchies/choices play an important role in feeding treatment. You can achieve sensory and oral-skill progression with food choices rather than ‘doing to’ the child. Food hierarchies help sensory systems shift slowly into accepting new foods.
• Discuss the central ideas in the Top 10 Myths about Mealtimes.
• Describe specific feeding milestones within the domains of oral motor, sensory processing, gross and fine motor, postural, cognitive, and emotional development.
• Discuss typical feeding development as it relates to the Steps to Eating and the Developmental Food Continuum.
• Describe the principles of Operant, Classical and Social Learning Theories and how they relate to different approaches of feeding treatment.

Intervention

• Demonstrate the ability to set up specific conditioning cue complexes for learning to eat.
• Demonstrate the ability to carry out activities designed to help a child reach an optimal state of arousal, as well as to maintain or re-gain an optimal arousal state for learning about food if they become distressed.
• Demonstrate the ability to meet minimal nutrition and texture requirements when building a Food Hierarchy.
• Discuss the clinical rational behind all foods selected in the Food Hierarchy.
• Discuss and demonstrate progression in Food Hierarchies to develop specific oral motor and sensory skills for feeding for a client.
• Participants will identify the 2 key components to Systematic Desensitization principles during feeding treatment
• Demonstrate the use of Key Phrases in a therapy session.
• Describe and demonstrate the ability to recognize sensory based reactions and utilize Sensory Based Problem Solving during feeding therapy.
• Sets up an environment for therapy that optimizes a child’s ability to learn about food.
• Demonstrates the ability to document and interpret progression along the Steps to Eating, across a set number of therapy sessions.

Parent Education

• Document implementation of Parent Education and training in SOS treatment tenants and techniques to facilitate carryover of skills into the home environment
• Discuss the unique needs of parents of children with feeding difficulties, related to the need for written materials and repeated explanations

Personal Development

• Demonstrate the ability to reflect upon a session, describe what went well, what did not go as well as expected, and what changes are planned to improve the next session.

Demonstration of Competency
Certification Program Participants will be evaluated based upon review of their written course work, video tape review of therapeutic intervention with actual Client Cases, response to constructive feedback provided, and final examination score. Outcomes of the Certification Program can include:

• Successful completion = SOS Approach to Feeding Certification Awarded.
• Remedial completion = additional mentorship will be required, including submission of additional course work and video case studies prior to being awarded a Certification. Depending upon the level of additional mentorship, an additional fee may apply.
• Unsuccessful completion = participant will not be awarded SOS Approach to Feeding Certification.