Feeding is a Sensory Motor Affair for Children

Eating and feeding is actually a sensory motor process. You need to feel it in order to move, in order to bite and chew and then swallow it down. These incorporates all the sensory and motor skills of a child's jaw, lip, tongue, and then also all the small muscles within. Sensory profile would be different from person to person. Imagine a child on the spectrum whose sensory profile is all over the place. You haven't gone to know which places are a little more sensitive, which places are hypo, meaning not enough sensory. They're seeking for sensory. So you don't know that within the mouth yet. Right. We need to check out a child's sensory profile, at least inside of the oral cavity. And how we do that is we use something called a toothette. We do a quick brush around the mouth to see which parts are seeking for sensory meaning. They like it, they don't have enough, they want more, or they're hypersensitive and they find it too much for them. The best way to do this is to see a qualified speech therapist to help your child determine which parts, what sensory is going on and so forth, and what kind of intervention is needed for that.