2009 NDTA Feeding and Swallowing Across the Lifespan Specialty Conference

The NDTA Feeding and Swallowing Conference held March 13-15, 2009, in Chicago was a resounding success. Lectures and lab experiences rich in detail and depth of information enabled participants to listen, understand, and try out their new skills.

The conference covered the importance of respiration coordination in the assessment of feeding and swallowing as well as changes in alignment of the head, neck, thorax, spine, and pelvis over the lifespan. Slides, videos and photos showed typical and atypical alignments, swallowing, and structures at all ages.

Videos of treatment sessions and interactions with families demonstrated how to integrate skills within daily living. Participants were given an opportunity to articulate the skills they learned with immediate feedback from instructors during treatment labs.

Rona Alexander, Bob Beecher, and Lyndelle Jones Owens detailed the foundations of NDT and its relationship to feeding and swallowing at all stages of life. The importance of breathing for all human activity and its relationship to feeding and swallowing was emphasized. A highlight was a video of food, with a camera attached, traveling from the lips down the entire digestive tract.

Pediatric and adult tracts examined the sensory presentations and movements that would maximize the child’s or adult’s active participation in mealtimes. Techniques for thoracic cage expansion and increasing musculature activation for breathing were demonstrated and practiced. Participants in the adult track were able to learn specific techniques for facilitation of alignment of the head/neck in relationship to the laryngeal system for voicing and safer swallowing.

A review of considerations for decisions regarding oral and non-oral feeding strategies for nutritional support, including how to integrate treatment within the family and improve their quality of life, ended the conference. Slides and videos illustrated how to implement a variety of strategies within the family structure and how to become partners, rather than directors, during treatment.