Instructor meeting 2022

 

On September 24 and 25, 2022 a group of F.O.T.T.^® instructors met at the Burgau Therapy Centre in Germany for an instructor training which they had organized together in order to ensure the quality of the course content on the basis of selected topics prepared in theory and practice.
In a constructive atmosphere exchange and learning took place, which was supported by mutual feedback, so that following points were reflected and dealt with.

 

First day

On the first day, the topics of postural control, the tongue and therapeutic eating were on the agenda.

The connection of postural control during examination and treatment of the facial oral tract is part of the basic understanding of F.O.T.T.^®. Many severely affected patients have limited or no ability to change their own posture.
We highlighted the importance of offering these patients small changes in position more often during treatment. The normal posture of a healthy person is always dynamic-stable and not fixed. We addressed the question of when learning takes place in the patient's rehabilitation process and considered aspects of mobilization and goal-directed support of movement.

Basic course topics such as the observation of the tongue are topics in which didactically the tongue as a structure is initially in the foreground. However, examination and treatment procedures only become clear when the view is broadened and the tongue is understood in its significance in the functional context of eating and drinking, swallowing, cleaning the oral cavity and speaking.
In teaching, it is therefore a matter of pointing out the complexity and transferring it into functionality. We have highlighted this and in the following developed possibilities of facilitations of tongue movements.

Including food in the treatment situation, dealing with quantities and consistencies and their demands on the facial oral tract were aspects of the topic 'therapeutic eating', as well as dealing with penetration and aspiration, which we discussed.

 

Second day

The second day of the meeting was focused on breathing.

This big and important topic it was about our understanding of breathing in F.O.T.T.^® and its place in the courses. We had invited Daniel Liedert, who as a respiratory therapist and practitioner of the F.O.T.T.^® concept for many years, discussed with us aspects that have changed as a result of his training as a respiratory therapist.
In particular, the increasing frequency of combined neurogenic dysphagia and pulmonary pre-existing or concomitant diseases also pose great challenges for therapists.
The connection between a patient's respiratory rate and swallowing capacity was also a special aspect that is still too little reflected in everyday clinical practice and is important for our further exploration and discussion of the topic.

 

Impressions