Think about how you typically eat. First, you have to get the food or drink to your mouth. You may be using a fork, spoon, straw, or your hands. You have to open your mouth to take the food or drink in. You close your lips to keep the food inside your mouth. Then, you chew the food or move the liquid to the back of your mouth to get ready to swallow.
We all can have problems swallowing at times. We may have trouble chewing a tough piece of meat, we have all had a drink “go down the wrong way,” making us cough. A person with a swallowing disorder will have this type of difficulty all the time. A swallowing disorder is also called dysphagia.
At Talkshop Speech Pathology we work with adults and children with swallowing and feeding issues. Read here for more information about how we assess and treat feeding and swallowing concerns in children.