SOS Approach to Feeding Conference

#	Date	Content	Duration
1		SOS Approach to Feeding Conference First Day 08/08/2025 08.00 – 17.30	570min
2		SOS Approach to Feeding Conference Second Day 09/08/2025 08.00 – 17.30	570min
3		SOS Approach to Feeding Conference Third Day 10/08/2025 08.00-17.30	570min
4		SOS Approach to Feeding Conference Fourth Day 11/08/2025 08.00 – 17.30	570min
5		SOS Approach to Feeding Conference Fifth Day 12/08/2025 08.00 – 17.30	570min

Introduction

The SOS (Sequential-Oral-Sensory) Approach to Feeding is an interdisciplinary method is developed specifically for evaluating and treating feeding and growth issues in children aged 0-18, with a focus on early identification of children between 6 months and 5 years. Within the SOS Approach to Feeding, every aspect related to posture, sensory, motor, behavioral/learning, health, and nutrition is comprehensively and integratively addressed to effectively assess and guide children with feeding and growth problems.

About to SOS Approach to Feeding – Main Conference

The 5-day Main Conference is designed for professionals interested in learning the SOS Approach to Feeding assess and treat children with feeding problems. While providing detailed information about the theoretical foundation of the SOS Approach to Feeding - Main Conference also informs participants about topics such as:

• How do children learn to eat or not eat?
• What are general and specific feeding strategies?
• What are the details of assessing feeding problems?
• How to plan a therapy session with the SOS Feeding Approach?

 

This training includes instructional presentations in PowerPoint format, videos of feeding difficulties in children, and participants engaging directly in eating, breathing, and posture exercises.

Additionally, participants will practice with real foods under the guidance of instructors.

Professionals who attend the SOS Approaches to Feeding Main Conference without interruption are eligible for accreditation to implement the SOS Feeding Approach program.

For those who have completed the Main Conference and wish to advance their expertise, SOS  Approaches to Feeding Advanced Level Courses(15-17 August 2025) in various topics are also open to register. Please check the Advanced Level Courses page if you are interested in to attend.

The SOS Approach to Feeding conference is an Intermediate level course: Information is geared to practitioners with a general working knowledge of current practice trends and literature related to the subject matter. Focus is on increasing understanding and competent application of the subject matter.

Objectives

1. List the seven areas of human function that need to be examined to provide a comprehensive Feeding Assessment.
2. Identify at least five of the oral, sensory, motor, cognitive or emotional developmental milestones key to being able to eat well.
3. List three reasons why children won’t eat, as based on learning theory principles.
4. Differentiate classical and operant conditioning principles as applied to resolving feeding problems.
5. Identify at least four of the necessary components of an SOS Approach to Feeding program for babies, toddlers, and young children in either an individual or group therapy session.
6. List all three requirements for building a Food Hierarchy.
7. Identify at least one play based strategy for progressing a child up each of the 6 major Steps on the Steps to Eating Hierarchy.

 

 

 

Warnings

** Participants must attend the training in full to receive their certificates. (08:00-17:30). If participants arrive late and/or leave early, they may miss crucial information related to the SOS Feeding Approach. Therefore, any missed portions must be compensated for with instructors on the following day, or else the certificate will not be issued. Please make all necessary transportation arrangements on time to avoid arriving late or leaving early.

** Participants should plan their travel considering the start and end times of the training dates. Consequently, participants will not be allowed to leave the training before 17:30. No exceptions will be made for transportation and accommodations such as flights, buses, or trains.

** Participants will eat different "demo foods" during this training. If there are any existing conditions such as food allergies, intolerances, illnesses, or medication interactions, participants must inform DİLGEM in advance. Adjustments will be made for these participants regarding "demo foods."

** After your registration for the training, DİLGEM will send some forms and documents that participants need to fill out and sign. Please ensure that your registered email address and contact information are up to date.

** The venue will be announced in 2025 Spring.

 

Course Program

DAY 1: 

8:00am to 8:45am            Registration

 

8:45am to 10:45am          I. Introduction                                                                                                           

1. Prevalence Data – Growth Problems
2. Prevalence Data – Feeding Problems

                                               

10:45am to 11:05am        Break

 

11:05am to 1:05pm                      C. Complexity of Feeding/Eating & the Role of the Environment

1. Tenets of SOS
2. Top 10 Myths - Overview
3. Appropriate Diagnoses to Use

                                   

1. Feeding Theory & Milestones - How children learn to AND not to eat
2. Learning Theory

 

1:05pm to 2:15pm            Lunch - On Your Own

 

2:15pm to 4:05pm            II. Feeding Theory & Milestones – continued

1. Learning Theory continued
2. Feeding Therapy Options
3. Learning Video

4:05pm to 4:25 pm           Break

 

4:25pm to 6:15pm            II. Feeding Theory & Milestones – continued

1. Myth 1 = Breathing
2. Motor Skill Acquisition
3. Oral-Motor Skills & Developmental Food Continuum

                                   

DAY 2:

8:45am to 10:45am          II. Feeding Theory & Milestones – continued

1. Oral-Motor Skills & Developmental Food Continuum continued

 

10:45am to 11:05am        Break

 

11:05am to 1:05pm          II. Feeding Theory & Milestones – continued

1. Sensory Skill Acquisition
2. Understanding the Role of Sensory Processing In Feeding
3. Steps to Eating - Overview                                           

 

1:05pm to 2:15pm             Lunch - On Your Own

 

DAY 2 continued:

2:15pm to 4:05pm            II. Feeding Theory & Milestones – continued

1. Cognitive Development
2. Psychological Developmental Stages                                                              

 

4:05pm to 4:25 pm           Break

 

4:25pm to 6:15pm            II. Feeding Theory & Milestones – continued

1. Psychological Developmental Stages continued

 

                                    III. Treatment/Interventions

1. General Treatment Strategies
2. Social Role Modeling

                                                              

DAY 3:  

8:45am to 10:45am          III. Treatment/Interventions - continued

1. General Treatment Strategies continued
2. Structure/Routine
3. The Correct Use of Reinforcement
4. Accessing the Cognitive
5. Food Jags

 

10:45am to 11:05am        Break

 

11:05am to 1:05pm          IV. Assessment of Feeding Problems                                                                   

1. Referral Candidates
2. Assessment Process
3. Reasons Children Won’t Eat - Child Factors

 

1:05pm to 2:15pm            Lunch - On Your Own

 

2:15pm to 4:05pm            IV. Assessment of Feeding Problems - continued

1. Reasons Children Won’t Eat - Environmental Factors
2. Reasons Children Won’t Eat - Parent Factors
3. Practice Videos
4. Parents’ Experience

 

4:05pm to 4:25 pm           Break

 

4:25pm to 6:15pm            V. The SOS Approach to Feeding – Theoretical Requirements

1. Systematic Desensitization                                                                                                                                       
2. Cues to Eating
3. Language Use

DAY 4:

8:45am to 10:45am          V. The SOS Approach to Feeding – Theoretical Requirements

1. Language Use continued

 

1. The SOS Approach to Feeding – Therapy Sessions
2. Therapy Format - Child continued
3. Room Set-Up + Modifications
4. Session Structure & Routine

10:45am to 11:05am        Break             

 

DAY 4 continued:   

11:05am to 1:05pm          VI. The SOS Approach to Feeding – Therapy Sessions - continued

1. Therapy Format – Parent
2. Modifications Across Settings
3. Sensory Based Problem Solving
4. Progression Across Sessions

             

1:05pm to 2:15pm            Lunch - On Your Own

 

2:15pm to 4:05pm            VI. The SOS Approach to Feeding – Therapy Sessions - continued

1. Graduation Criteria & SOS Data                                               
2. Building a Food Hierarchy
3. Requirements

4:05pm to 4:25 pm           Break

 

4:25pm to 6:15pm            VI. The SOS Approach to Feeding – Therapy Sessions - continued

1. Building a Food Hierarchy – Practice continued
2. Practice

DAY 5: 

8:45am to 10:45am          VI. The SOS Approach to Feeding – Therapy Sessions - continued

1. K. Hierarchy Strategies – Moving Children Up the Steps
2. Play techniques per Step
3. Practicing hierarchy strategies                                                

10:45am to 11:05am        Break

 

11:05am to 1:05pm                      VI. The SOS Approach to Feeding – Therapy Sessions - continued

1. K. Hierarchy Strategies – Moving Children Up the Steps continued
2. Practicing hierarchy strategies continued
3. Hierarchy Strategies – Oral Motor Steps to Eating
4. Play techniques per Step
5. Practicing hierarchy strategies

 

1:05pm to 2:15pm            Lunch - On Your Own

 

2:15pm to 4:05pm            VI. The SOS Approach to Feeding – Therapy Sessions - continued

1. Video: Progression Within Session
2. SOS Data

4:05pm to 4:25 pm           Break

 

4:25pm to 6:15pm **         VII. Managing Other Maladaptive Behaviors                                                                    

1. Intervention strategies – Perseveration & Vomiting
2. Emotion Based Discipline

 

Intended Audience:

Speech Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, Registered Dietitians, Special Education Teachers, Psychologists, Physical Therapists, Early Intervention Specialists, Nurses, Physicians, and Mental Health Workers. Note: Training conferences are created for professionals. If parents wish to attend the training workshop, they must be accompanied by their child’s feeding therapist.

 

** Registrants are expected to attend the course and participate fully for the entire length of each day (8:45am to 6:15pm), in order to receive their Certificate and their full Continuing Education Credits (if CEUs are given). Participants will miss crucial information needed to be able to correctly use the SOS Approach to Feeding program if they come late or leave the course early on any day. Any and all missed lecture time must be made-up before the end of the Conference in order for a Certificate to be received and/or permission to use the program to be given. Participants leaving before 5pm on the last day of the Conference will not receive a Certificate nor permission to use the program. Please make sure to make travel arrangements to leave the Conference AFTER 6:15pm on the last day.

(Travel plans on trains and planes must be arranged so that participants do NOT leave the conference on the last day until after 6:15pm even if that means staying an extra night).

Dr. Kay Toomey

Dr. Kay A. Toomey is a Pediatric Psychologist who has worked with children who don’t eat for over 35 years. She has developed the SOS Approach to Feeding as a family centered program for assessing and treating children with feeding problems. Dr. Toomey speaks nationally and internationally about her approach. Dr. Toomey helped to form The Children’s Hospital – Denver’s Pediatric Oral Feeding Clinic, as well as the Rose Medical Center’s Pediatric Feeding Center. Dr. Toomey co-chaired the Pediatric Therapy Services Department at Rose Medical Center prior to entering private practice. Dr. Toomey acted as the Clinical Director for Toomey & Associates, Inc.’s Feeding Clinic, and then the SOS Feeding Solutions @ STAR before shifting into clinical consultation in order to focus on her teaching. Dr. Toomey is currently the President of Toomey & Associates, Inc. and an Adjunct Research Fellow at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions.

 

 

 

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Prof. Dr. Erin Ross

Erin Sundseth Ross, PhD, CCC-SLP received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado in 2007, followed by a 2-year Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Section of Nutrition at the University of Colorado Denver. Her master’s degree is in Speech and Language Pathology, from California State University Stanislaus, which she received in 1988. Dr. Ross is currently an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Colorado and is on faculty at the Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions. She has authored several book chapters and publications related to feeding preterm infants and infants with medical comorbidities. Dr. Ross provides clinical consultation to several Newborn Intensive Care Units (NICU) within the HealthONE system in Denver, in addition to providing professional education and research consultation through Feeding FUNdamentals, LLC. She created SOFFI®, a training program for caregivers in the NICU and therapists and other professionals working with babies who are having problems breast or bottle feeding at home. She brings 30+ years of experience working with premature infants and infants with medical problems.