Pediatric dysphagia awareness resources: Keeping our children safe at mealtimes

Dysphagia Awareness

In honor of Dysphagia Awareness month, we are pleased to promote an amazing resource “Chewing Can Be Tricky”-A dysphagia coloring book. It is now available in English, Spanish, German, French and Chinese. In addition, there’s now a school age version.

See below a note from the Author. And be sure to follow the link to access the free resources!

A note from the Author

My hope for this coloring book is to enhance the safety of children during meal times and to provide a resource of general guidelines to the child and caregiver in multiple settings such as the home, school and community outings. (I.e. restaurant, field trip, etc.)

Specific recommendations for the child you care for may be determined with a full dynamic team approach including the Parents/Caregivers, medical/educational SLPs, OT, PT, Nurse, Physician, Registered Dietitian, Teachers and other school personnel.

This coloring book is a tool to discuss chewing and swallowing with the children you care for and others who care for them to increase safety and reduce choking risk at meal and snack time.

Throughout this book you will see the Activity Stop symbol, which marks an opportunity for you to talk with and observe the child’s chewing habits. Older children can complete these sections and share their answers with you to learn more about improving chewing skills and meal time success.

Together, we will keep our children safer at mealtimes!

-Donna Edwards, CCC-SLP, BCS-S, and ASHA Fellow