Episode 123: How Do You Become A Confident Pediatric Feeding Therapist

Quick Disclaimer all information, content and material of this podcast are the opinions of the speakers and is for the informational purpose only and not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis and or medical treatment of a qualified healthcare provider. Welcome to the Untethered Podcast. I am your host, Hallie Balkan. I'm a certified orofacial myologist, feeding specialist and mentor. This podcast is all about getting your questions answered and collaborating with colleagues to bring you the most up to date information in the orofacial myofunctional therapy, tethered oral tissue and airway space. I challenge you to keep an open mind and join my mission to get this information out to the masses. Let's get started. Hi and welcome to episode 123 of the Untethered Podcast. It's your host, Hallie Balkan. You get me today. I am really excited because you know, I get a question quite often that I thought would be a really great opportunity to talk about, especially with Feed the Peas relaunching in a few weeks. And before we hop into that real quick, well, first what I'm going to tell you is we're going to answer the question how do I become a pediatric feeding therapist or how do I hone my skills? If this is something I've been dabbling in, but I'm not confident enough to start assessing and treating these cases. So we're going to talk about that in a minute. But if you are just joining us here or if you haven't participated participated in the past or you want to participate again again, I wanted you to know that we are reopening the free training. If you go to feedthepedes.com training that will take you to the signup for our free training coming up August 23rd. And that is five days to screening your first pediatric feeding patient. It's a live series. The first day is actually prerecorded because it's my kids eating a snack. But then Tuesday through Friday that week we hang out live and you can get five free certification maintenance hours CMHS and you'll participate with me to learn how to use a screener checklist in the milestone chart that's contained within the screener. You'll watch me screen my 2 year old and my 4 year old together. One is typical, one is not as far as feeding skills go. And you'll discover how to make sense of the screening results, make next step recommendations and then learn the fastest way to launch yourself into assessing and treating these pediatric feeding cases once the screening is completed. So if you want to join us, join me and literally thousands of other SLP and OTs that have already done this. We have over 8,000 in the group, maybe more. I haven't even looked at the number recently. Maybe we're up to 9,000, who knows? But we've had so much great feedback and how groundbreaking this training is and how much interesting information was learned just from these, this free five days together that I would love for you to join us. If you're an SLP or an OT interested in pediatric feeding, so go to feedthepedes.com backslash training. All right, let's hop into this episode. So how do we become a pediatric feeding therapist? Well, you take Feed the Peds. Just kidding. Kind of sort of stick with me here. So imagine if taking on pediatric feeding cases, feeding and swallowing cases. Imagine if that was an easy task, right? Well, everybody would be doing it. They're not. It's not the easiest thing. However, wouldn't it be great if you knew exactly like what to look for during assessments with your patients? You felt confident to create realistic goals and make progress towards them. You became that go to expert that other people refer to. You grew a client list helps even more children and families thrive. If that's your desire. And if you have your own private practice or want to see patients on the side, let's just say you stop leaving money on the table and hit a new income bracket too. You can do this. And honestly, I do everything virtual so you can learn how to do this while relaxing at home in your favorite sweatpants, drinking your favorite beverage. But seriously, this is what Feed the Peds is. Ok, I'm going to plug it for a second and then we're going to chat. So Feed the Peds is a. It's the foundations of pediatric feeding and swallowing. And nobody has created anything else out there like this on the market. No matter what they call it, how they try to mirror it at this point, we have taught this five times. This will be our sixth time teaching it since March 2020. And we've had over 900 SLPs and OTs already go through this course. Some have told us they got hired because this was on their on their resume. And that's what the hiring individual told them. We've had hospital Systems put over nine SLPs or OTs through this at one time together because they are recognizing all the quality and what we are teaching in. This is truly helping SLPs and OTs step into being a pediatric feeding therapist. So what do we Focus on. Well, we focus on foundational development of children from birth, conception, but birth through five years of age. And the training can apply to older patients too. Okay, but as you know, you probably know this for years, the only way to really gain comprehensive supplemental education and specialize in working with these early PED feeding cases was to travel around the country taking training after training. And even before the pandemic, I had decided I was going to launch a completely virtual training to make this information more accessible. And then the pandemic happened and we were. We launched the first time on March 16, 2020, as the world shut down. So glad that we had this for so many of you to enjoy while you were stuck at home. But anyways, you basically have to piecemeal all this information together like I did. And to be fair to the amazing therapists who run these sessions or teach these courses, they're packed with valuable information. They're worth the cost of entry, no doubt, but attending them always comes at a greater price, like plane tickets, rental cars, hotel rooms, meals on the road, and more. You know, this stuff all adds up. And it oftentimes costs more than the workshop or training itself. And that's not factoring the extra expense of being away from your family, like childcare, pet care, you know, anything else that you like. Losing money if you have to cancel patients. You know, if you get paid per. Per service, this can add up fast. Right? So with BE the peds, I'm on a mission to change all that. And the mission is well underway, as I mentioned, with over 900 SLPs and OTs already having benefited from the course since March 2020. And so now it's your turn to help us feed the peds. Okay, So I want you to. I want you to jump in if this is something that interests you, or email supporteadthepedes.com if you have any questions at all. I will also tell you that we offer a 50% scholarship to clinical fellows and new graduates. Well, those clinical fellows are the new graduates as well as graduate students, so email supporteedthepedes.com to learn more about that. Anyways, so how do we become a pediatric feeding therapist? Well, it takes more than just additional education to become a pediatric feeding therapist. A lot of SLPs and OTs think that if they just had another course or the right course, they could treat feeding patients. Spoiler alert. This is why so many therapists take the courses and continue to dream of being confident, competent pediatric feeding therapists. A lot of people walk away and they can't call themselves that. I can't tell you how many SLPs and OTs I've talked to who have taken endless courses and still don't feel comfortable even calling themselves a pediatric feeding therapist. I'm not talking about a specialist. I'm about talking. I'm just talking about someone who does pediatric feeding. Pediatric feeding therapist. That's it, right? This is why I created the elevation movement that you've heard me talk about before, which you experience in action inside Feed the peds and anything I offer, because it's about bringing you this comprehensive approach to developing everything that you need to stop dreaming and actually become a PED feeding therapist. On my mission to help more children, I realized there are three elements that are essential to take somebody from just like SLP or OT to a confident, competent feeding therapist. And those three things are mentorship, identity, and skillset. Now, the issue is that most courses only offer skillset. What sets feed the peds apart from everything else is we give you the skill set, but we also give you the identity and the mentorship. Plus a heck, a lot more. But anyways, look, if you're. If you're like Most of the SLPs and OTs that I work with, the biggest thing holding you back from your dream is your identity. Okay? So stick with me here. Until you have the identity of a pediatric feeding therapist, you will continue to lack the confidence that allows you to easily learn what you need to know to confidently approach, assess, and treat these children. Confidence comes from competence, so developing your skill set is vital to becoming the person who treats instead of the person who dreams of treating while writing another referral. You hear me? You know what I'm saying here? And mentorship also is crazy critical during your journey because you gain the feedback that you need to know that you're applying your knowledge correctly. Right? Guidance and mentorship are catalysts for change. Nothing is better than knowing that you've got people who got your back and support your growth. And sooner or later, you're going to figure out that with all three of these elements, you'll continue to stay stuck. Sorry. Without them, you will continue to stay stuck not knowing how to treat, not owning that you're a person who can help these patients. And you'll just be waiting for permission from some outside source to call yourself a pediatric feeding therapist. I'm here to tell you, with our program, you can do that. You can call yourself that. And it's the most exhilarating thing. We have so much fun with it. We have so Much fun with shifting our subconscious identity. I'm going a little woo here and truly embracing this identity of being a pediatric feeding therapist, which is absolutely necessary. And it's a quick activity that I take everybody through in a bonus exercise when you purchase the course and when you launch in, like, right when you, when you join, you get immediate access to that, and we have so much fun with it. Anyhow, I know that part of the issue is that, like, we basically live by our commitment to do no harm, right? I know that we don't, we don't sign an oath or swear in, like, doctors or whatnot, but we still live by this commitment to do no harm to our patients, right? That would be unethical. That would be illegal. Like, we just, you know, we live by that same commitment that they do. However, you're doing your patients a disservice if you let this hold you back from becoming the best therapist that you can be. Like, have you fully considered that referring patients to these, like, faraway specialists in big cities with wait lists is increasing the anxiety that families feel about their child's condition? Like, even a local referral, honestly, could be causing a family anxiety. If they come to you, they trust you. And if this is a skill set you desire to have, I want that for you just as bad as you want it for yourself right now. When you choose to invest just 12 weeks in upgrading your skillset, adopting this new identity, embracing the mentorship that feed the peds gives you, you can help those families avoid all that anxiety and get the help they require right away. So just imagine for a moment, like, close your eyes. Unless you are driving, don't close your eyes. Do this later. Just imagine being the confident and competent therapist that a family needs. I mean, that feels good, right? Like, that would be great. And this is just one example of how feed the PEDs and the elevation movement can help you make a bigger impact, keep your client roster filled, and make more money from family if that's something you desire. But here's the thing. I know a lot of us have two major concerns beyond, like, not identifying as a pediatric feeding therapist. Well, how do you become a feeding therapist? One, you have to be willing to, one, take on the identity to invest your time, and three, invest some money into stepping into this highly sought after and really, honestly, kind of hard to learn, but we really make it a lot easier for you Skillset. So a lot of you say, well, Howie, I'm not sure if I have the time. Well, how do you become a pediatric feeding therapist? If you don't invest the time, Right? Because what you're really saying is that you're not sure that you're ready to step up and become that confident, competent feeding therapist, that you're not ready to become confident and competent in your skills. As a pediatric feeding therapist, we make time for what we value. And the fact that you're even listening to this still this episode means that you're part of a Part of you already knows that becoming a pediatric feeding therapist will add value to your life and the lives of the patients that you treat. How long do you want to wait before you decide to help the patients that need you most? Right, like, you already know that at some point you'll have to get your continuing Ed credit. So it's really just a matter of what course you're going to take and what enrollment period is right for you. And I totally get it. Like, we all lead busy lives and that's okay. Part of the reason why I created Feed the Peds as an online course was because I know what it means to be busy. Feed the Peeds honestly is the only course of its kind where you don't have to give up travel time, take days off completing the trainings, and as an online course, with videos and replays of the live case study reviews, you can watch and implement the material at your own pace if you desire. You also get lifetime access. So that's cool. But that means that you can binge watch Netflix style, or you can watch and learn during breaks in your day as you have time. Like, it is totally up to you how you approach this. And unlike a live seminar, you get access to the material for life. Like I just mentioned, lifetime access. Now, how you become a pediatric feeding therapist number three is you have to be willing to set aside some funds and invest in yourself. Feed the Peas is honestly an investment in you. Have you ever purchased something that changed your life and allowed you to increase your skillset and confidence so that you could better serve your patients before? Like your graduate degree perhaps? I mean, I get it. Feed the Peas is a serious investment in yourself because it's only for SLPs and OTs who are serious about making a bigger impact in the world. The course is comprehensive, so you don't have to piece together a strategy to implement what you've learned into your business or your daily practice. You get the assessment forms, screeners, intake forms, and more so that you can immediately focus on treating patients and not let admin tasks like creating documents hold you back. And if making a bigger impact in the lives of children and their families and isn't already enough, then consider that as a pediatric feeding therapist, you'll be able to charge more for your services if you'd like to, whether it's bill to insurance or not, attract more patients and refer out less patients. Make your investment back quickly with a great rate of return over the course of your career. So I want you to ask yourself, where will I be 12 months from now if I don't invest a bit of time and a bit of money into pediatric feeding therapist training? Now, you might think that 12 months from now, you'll just be in the same place that you're that you are today, but really that's not true. You'll be 12 months further behind with your confidence and your skills, with a reputation of referring patients out instead of being able to treat them. And you might find yourself developing an ever growing longing to have more impact. And even more stories about how you don't know enough and aren't confident enough yet. And where will your patients be? They're going to be sitting on wait lists, waiting for some other therapist, maybe traveling long distance for treatment, worried about their ability to get the help they need. And let's not forget that even with the best intentions, sometimes a referral makes parents more stressed and worried about what's happening with their children. Or 12 months from now, you could have completed the course, spent nine months serving the patients that need you most, and started to build a reputation as a therapist who's highly competent that patients and other professionals refer to. So you can choose to say stay in doubt or you can decide to step up, get this career changing training and have a bigger impact on the patients who need you most. So let's review. This is a quick episode. If you are somebody who wants to become a pediatric feeding therapist, it is more than just taking a course and gaining a skillset. That is a very important component. But you also need to work. You need access to mentorship and you need access to identity. You need to shift that identity. And actually that is the first thing, right? Identity, mentorship skill set. That's the elevation movement that I created. It's intertwined through everything that I do. But then we also need to, aside from, you know, doing more than just taking the course and shifting our identity, we also need to commit the time and invest in ourselves so that we can step into this role that we desire and truly go out and help these patients that need us. So go to FeedThePedes.com, get on the Waitlist or if you're listening during the last week of August, Doors are open. We would love to have you join us. It is a really exciting time because the fact that we are able to shift so many therapists lives by simply giving you access to the information you desire means that you are going to go out and treat thousands. We are going to treat thousands and thousands of pediatric feeding cases together that would not have been addressed otherwise. And that gives me chills. That makes me excited. So between August 30th at 9am Eastern Time and September 3rd at 12 midnight Eastern Time, doors to feed the PEDs are open. Go there now if you're listening to this before the week of the 23rd we have the free training going on. Go to feed the feed thepedes.com training to join us for the live free training. 5 hours of free CMHS between August 23rd and August 27th. All the details will be emailed to you, so just go to that link. I cannot wait to see you all in there and hope everybody is having a wonderful day and a wonderful end to their summer. We will chat soon and I'll see you inside the training. Thanks for listening to this podcast. If you want to hear more of these Myotots, Airway and Feeding related episodes, be sure to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or pledge a small amount on patreon.com the Untethered podcast. If you found value, others you know in this space will too. 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