About | Superfeeders

Why SuperFeeders?

The name SuperFeeders originated from two foundational skills we believe are essential to being an effective, evidence-supported, family-centered Pediatric Feeding Therapist.

Super

Super stands for Supervision. Yes, supervision! While this is not a topic many get excited about, we believe it is at the core of all we do. We are experienced speech-language pathologists who work in a university setting and firmly believe it is our professional responsibility to teach future feeding therapists to know their WHY. We believe if you can't explain it simply, you don’t understand it. We integrate Anderson's (1988) Continuum of Supervision into our practice and recognize the importance of demonstrating and explaining treatment strategies to those less experienced prior to evaluating and providing feedback on developing skills.

We also believe that this same supervisory style can be effective in supporting families by empowering them to implement the strategies we teach in therapy. Families and caregivers are the real feeding therapists. It is also essential to allow students, new feeding therapists, and families and caregivers to transition to the lead feeder of their infant/child which allows them to move from interdependence to being fully independent.

We would be remiss if we did not use our language background to highlight that we want our students, new feeding therapists, families and caregivers to feel like they are SUPER (great, fantastic, confident) feeders so their little ones have positive mealtime experiences and receive adequate nutrition so they can grow and learn.We aim to provide expert, specialized, individualized support that is based on the needs, skills, and interests of students, new feeding therapists, and caregivers so we can all become SuperFeeders!

Feeder

Well, we anticipate you know what this means. This is the aspect that is all about Pediatric Feeding Disorders! It is essential that students, new feeding therapists, and families/caregivers understand the multifaceted, complex, and dynamic etiologies of PFDs, Everyone involved in providing this care and/or receiving this service must understand the rationale for the evaluation process, and the compensatory and facilitative strategies utilized in therapy and across all settings to support infants and children who demonstrate feeding difficulties. We want students, new feeding therapists and caregivers/families to be SuperFeeders so they can support infants and children who are still learning to be independent, happy, and healthy feeders.

The ULTIMATE GOAL is to have our infants and children become SuperFeeders by enjoying the mealtime process, making healthy choices, and independently feeding themselves when they are hungry.

Why 'Where Growth Happens'?

Our slogan, “where growth happens” is an inclusive phrase we believe describes our overall mission and encompasses multiple perspectives- growth of mind, skill, body, and relationships.

As life-long learners, we are hungry for knowledge.

Collectively we have more than 60 years of clinical experience, over 40 years of supervisory experience and over 20 years of teaching experience. This does not preclude us from learning which is evidenced by our speciality certifications, and advanced degrees. We learn through our practice, reading and questioning the literature, and understanding family perspectives. As SuperFeeders we are growing our knowledge and skills by consistently learning about, from, and with individuals from a variety of disciplines and settings, educational experiences, and cultural backgrounds. We are growing! We want you to grow too!

As living beings, growth is synonymous to development.

Consider the growth that occurs during the 9 months an infant is in the womb, the first year of life, the pre-school and elementary years, and how an adolescent grows into an adult. Nutrition is the brain and body’s source of energy. When children have positive mealtime experiences (even if and when alternate means of nutrition are required) and are autonomous in making choices surrounding mealtimes, they thrive in mind, skill, body, and relationships. We want our children to grow too!