Often I'm working behind the scenes, but the other day I happen to be in the right place at the right time, and got to work together with the physio to do a communication/feeding intervention for a six year old girl. The little girl is non-verbal, and was also being fed cradled in her mums arms, with her head tilted way back in hyperextension to make sure the food stayed in her mouth. This seemed to be more out of habit than necessity, because the girl actually had very good head control, not to mention quite good oral motor skills. We used boardmaker with Creole words for her to make a choice about what she wanted to eat and then provided education to the mum on proper positioning for feeding, how to present the food, the risk of aspiration etc...By the end of the session not only was she making a choice between two things, she was also actively involved in the feeding process and even attempting to hold the spoon that we adapted for her. It was definitely one of those feel good moments.
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