We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marissa Douglas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marissa below.

Alright, Marissa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style. Do you have an interesting story from that stage of your career that you can share with us?

Learning is my favorite part of my job! I have been blessed with learning opportunities throughout my studies and career. One of my favorite learning experiences from undergrad was spending a week in Nicaragua administering speech, language and hearing screenings. I think it’s so valuable to gain experience in your career as early as possible. It will only help refine you and help you make future decisions with increased ease.

But even now, I never stop learning. To be certified by the American Speech Language and Hearing Association, SLPs MUST complete 30 hours of continuing education/professional development during a 3 year interval. I do more than 30 hours in one year! Partially because I love learning, and partially because there is just so much to know! You are never too old or experienced to learn more. I have taken so many amazing learning opportunities this year and it has been so fun learning from some of the best in my field! I am most excited about spending a week in Boca Raton, at the Pediatric Feeding Institute of South Florida, working directly with their two lead feeding therapists, Andrea and Taylor!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Marissa, and I am a Speech- Language Pathologist and Orofacial-Myofunctional Therapist. My job as an SLP and OMT is to help families and children who have concerns or difficulty with speech, language, feeding, and oral rest posture. I take a whole body approach, and I aim to address the underlying issue, instead of just putting a bandaid on the problem.

During an evaluation, I cover birth, medical, speech/language, feeding, dental, sensory/oral habits, gross/fine motor, and sleep history. I also assess the body by taking pictures, to fully examine posture, the jaw, face, tongue, lips, teeth, and palate. Depending on the clients age, I will engage them in a series of exercises to assess how the tongue, jaw, and lips function. I make observations of the client’s oral rest posture and breathing. I also have every client consume a snack, in order to fully assess chewing a swallowing across a variety of textures (puree, chewy, crunchy, hard) and utensils (cup, straw, spoon, fork). I ALWAYS assess feeding, even if there are no feeding concerns. Eating is a complex skill, and it can tell you a lot about how the tongue, lips, and jaw work together!!

After my assessment, I put together a plan of care to address weaknesses and parent/client goals. I spend a lot of time educating families on proper oral rest posture, nasal breathing, and proper chewing and swallowing function. Did you know that snoring is NEVER normal? Did you know that mouth breathing is a sign of an airway issue? Did you know that a pacifier used past 6 months of age can have negative impact on a number of aspects of growth and development? I could go on forever, parent and client education is an important part of my job.

In today’s world, we are always on the go. Because of that we now have sippy cups, puree pouches, and highly processed snack foods. Children are not properly exercising muscles when chewing soft processed foods, eating purees from pouches and using a sippy cup instead of a straw or an open cup. These types of cups and spouts promote biting, chewing, thrusting, and suckling patterns. It’s hard for parents, because these products are marketed towards children, but they often come with risks and negative impacts if used incorrectly or too often.

One of the biggest negative impacts I see is oral rest posture. Your probably wondering, what that is. So I ask you, where is your tongue right now? The tongue should be lightly suctioned to the roof of your mouth with the tongue tip resting close to the top front teeth (but not touching), the lips lightly sealed, and the teeth slightly apart. When the tongue is resting low and forward and is not used properly, certain muscles become weak, and the palate develops high and narrow instead of wide and broad. A high narrow palate makes proper oral rest posture harder to achieve, impacts swallowing and airway. An impacted airway can lead to mouth breathing, which leads to a long face and recessed jaw, which then further impacts airway size. It is a vicious cycle. It is my job to break that cycle, and re-train those tongue muscles to work properly and achieve proper oral rest posture while the child is still developing. We can make a lot of impact at a young age because muscles are still developing, which impacts bone. So if we can get muscles functioning properly, development should follow suit.

Now you might be thinking, “but what if an adult has these issues?” I see adults too! Results just depend on how much time and money each individual client wants to invest. Adults can suffer from many of the same symptoms as children, and I often see jaw pain, headaches, teeth grinding, neck/back pain, sleep issues, undiagnosed tongue ties, and obstructive sleep apnea too. The key is finding the underlying issue and addressing that instead of a bandaid solution. The night guard your dentist prescribed you might protect your teeth, but it will not stop the grinding, reduce your headaches, or improve your sleep. You can have orthodontic treatment to straighten your teeth, but your swallowing pattern and oral rest posture may cause orthodontic relapse in the future. I work closely with dentists, orthodontists, nutrition/GI, ENTs, and Bodyworkers for an integrative whole body approach no matter the age. Assess and address the root cause.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

I think if I could go back and choose something else, I would be an Occupational Therapist. I have always loved working with OT’s and they have been such a valuable part of my team. I enjoy learning from them and incorporating what they teach me into my sessions.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Meeting the client where they are at. That is a really important part of my job. Everyone is on a different journey and there is no cookie cutter path or answer for everyone.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pedsfeedingtherapy.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pedsfeedingtherapy/?r=nametag
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pedsfeeding/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marissa-douglas-a30005b1/
• Other: https://g.page/r/Cdi82XddJnz1EBM/review

Image Credits
Haillie Beam