Bear Tracks Services
Online, In-Home and In-Clinic Therapy Options
Our Clients
Children who are recommended for feeding therapy usually have difficulty consuming enough calories to adequately sustain nutrition. Some children, especially those with more complex feeding disorders, may choke, gag, cough, or vomit before, during or after eating. Food and liquid refusals are common. Children with feeding disorders are treated using various approaches.
Bear Tracks Pediatric Therapies specializes in treating children with the following diagnoses
Autism Spectrum
Childhood Apraxia of Speech
Language Delay or Disorder
Developmental Delays
Oral-Motor
Feeding
Articulation
Dysarthria
Phonological Disorder
Stuttering
Cognitive, Problem Solving and Reasoning Deficits
Neurological /Genetic Disorders and associated speech-language challenges
Traumatic Brain Injury and associated speech-language challenges
Therapeutic Techniques
Who needs Feeding Therapy?
Children who are recommended for feeding therapy usually have difficulty consuming enough calories to adequately sustain nutrition. Some children, especially those with more complex feeding disorders, may choke, gag, cough, or vomit before, during or after eating. Food and liquid refusals are common. Children with feeding disorders are treated using various approaches.
How will a speech-language pathologist diagnose and help my child with a feeding difficulty?
Children who are recommended for feeding therapy usually have difficulty consuming enough calories to adequately sustain nutrition. Some children, especially those with more complex feeding disorders, may choke, gag, cough, or vomit before, during or after eating. Food and liquid refusals are common. Children with feeding disorders are treated using various approaches.
Can you give an example of a feeding therapy approach?
One key therapy approach utilized by Bear Tracks Pediatric Therapies for sensory-based feeding disorders is the Sequential Oral-Sensory (SOS) Approach, which was developed by Dr. Kay Toomey. Our goal is to address medical, behavioral, oral-motor and sensory aspects of feeding which may be disrupting your child’s ability to eat normally and to gain weight.
Visual supports and behavior management aids are often used in conjunction with the SOS approach for children with Autism and others who benefit from visual, positive reinforcement.
Cognitive, Problem Solving, and Reasoning Deficit Therapy
We use a program called Visualizing and Verbalizing to help school-age children with deficits in executive functioning, including reading comprehension. This program by Nanci Bell develops concept imagery which is a key sensory-cognitive skill for language and reading comprehension, along with higher order thinking.
Articulation and Phonological Disorders
A phonological disorder refers to patterns of sound errors. For example, leaving off the final consonants of words like “t” and “m” (e.g., saying “si” for sit or “ha” for ham), or reducing consonant clusters to one sound (e.g., “fog” for frog, “top” for stop and “gape” for grape). The term “phonological disorder” emphasizes that speech requires knowledge of language. One technique is the Cycles Approach, where the therapist focuses on a class of sounds for remediation.
Cognitive, Problem Solving, and Reasoning Deficit Therapy
Articulation and Phonological Treatment
At Bear Tracks Pediatric Therapies, a variety of articulation and phonological approaches are used. A sample of these are: The Van Riper approach (also called the Traditional Approach), Paired-Stimuli approach, Paired Stimuli (Key Word) Program, Sensory-motor Program, Distinctive Features, Cycles Program, Metaphon Therapy, and Easy Does It For Phonology. The approach chosen for your child is generally based on your child’s type of speech disorder, age, and ability to participate and sustain attention to a particular approach.
Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) Disorder
CAS refers to a speech disorder that presents as disrupted speech motor control. In this disorder, there is no weakness, paralysis or paresis of the speech mechanism. A speech-language pathologist who is trained and experienced with CAS can diagnose and treat children with this speech motor programming/planning deficit. One treatment for CAS we employ is the Kaufman Speech to Language protocol, which is a speech-motor programming skill for pediatric patients.
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Primary Contacts
630-449-9307
3078 Serenity Lane Naperville, IL 60564
Hours of Operation
Mon: 8:00am – 7:00pm
Tues: 8:00am – 7:00pm
Weds: 8:00am – 7:00pm
Thurs: 8:00am – 7:00pm