While Diane Bahr’s first workshop with TalkTools is approaching, we wanted to highlight her recent addition to the team.

TalkTools: What was your first encounter with Oral Placement Therapy (OPT)?

Diane:  I took courses with Sara Rosenfeld-Johnson and Lori Overland when they were first teaching workshops. I have been using TalkTools products and programs in my own treatment, as well as teaching about them in my graduate course and continuing education ever since.

TalkTools: You contributed to several publications about OPT since then. Can you tell us more about them?

Diane: Absolutely. Firstly, Sara and I wrote the first article using the terms OPD and OPT: “Treatment of Children With Speech Oral Placement Disorders (OPDs): A Paradigm Emerges.” You will also see my name on the acknowledgement page in Oral Placement Therapy for Speech Clarity and Feeding, as well as the Introduction to the 4^th edition. Sara mentions me as well in her acknowledgement page in Oral Placement Therapy (OPT) for /s/ and /z/, and Lori in A Sensory Motor Approach to Feeding. So, I have a long history of helping and supporting the work of TalkTools.

TalkTools: Why did you decide to join the TalkTools team?

Diane: Sara had invited me to join the team many years ago, but we were working through the oral sensory-motor controversy and decided to work separately until we had some resolution. We now seem to have this resolution particularly with Ray Kent’s 2015 article and all of the orofacial myofunctional research that is coming out around the globe. I decided to join the TalkTools team now because the timing is right. Both my textbook (Oral Motor Assessment and Treatment: Ages and Stages, 2001) and my parent-professional book [Nobody Ever Told Me (or my mother) That!, 2010] discuss the work of TalkTools.

TalkTools: How is your workshop going to help therapists?

Diane: My 15-hour workshop “Integrated Treatment of Feeding, Speech and Mouth Function in Pediatrics” can be taken either by therapists new to TalkTools who want an introduction or by therapists who have taken TalkTools workshops and want integration regarding the many aspects of oral sensory-motor treatment (i.e., feeding, motor speech, and mouth development/function). My course was a graduate course for many years, and I have been teaching it in continuing education since 1989. The goal of this workshop is to help all therapists integrate the wealth of oral sensory-motor information (re. feeding, motor-speech, and mouth development/function) that is currently available. I keep the workshop updated with the newest and best information I can find. Basically, I have spent 33 of my 36 year career studying and doing oral sensory-motor treatment.

TalkTools: Thank you and welcome to the TalkTools team!

Diane Bahr is a certified Speech-Language Pathologist and infant massage instructor. She has practiced Speech-Language Pathology since 1980 and has been a feeding therapist since 1983. Her experiences include teaching Graduate, Undergraduate, and Continuing Education courses; working with children and adults who exhibit a variety of speech, language, feeding, and swallowing disorders; and publishing/presenting information on oral sensory-motor function, assessment and treatment. She is the author of the textbook Oral Motor Assessment and Treatment: Ages and Stages (Allyn & Bacon, 2001). She has also written a book for parents entitled Nobody Ever Told Me (Or My Mother) That! Everything from Bottles and Breathing to Healthy Speech Development (Sensory World, 2010). Diane maintains a private practice, writes articles appearing in a variety of publications, is interviewed frequently on radio and in magazines, and is an international presenter.

She will be teaching the workshop “Integrated Treatment of Feeding, Speech and Mouth Function in Pediatrics” offered for 1.5 ASHA & AOTA approved CEUs on December 8-10, 2016 in New York, NY. Learn more and register here.