Sensory Help Now

A 2-hour foundation course for parents who want to understand why their child finds eating hard — built around the recognition that there's almost never a single reason. The first course in our three-part feeding series, taught by Speech and Language Therapist Laura Osman and Occupational Therapist Louisa Hargett.

Part 1 of a three-part series

This three-part series follows a deliberate sequence — understanding first, then strategies, then mealtimes. Each part can be taken on its own, but they're designed to work together.

Part 1 → This course

Reasons Children Don't Eat · 2 hours · £20

Understanding why your child may be finding eating hard.

Part 2 → How to Help a Child Who Won't Eat

Strategies · 2 hours · £20

Practical, evidence-based strategies to develop the skills feeding requires.

Part 3 → Creating Positive Mealtime Experiences

Mealtimes · 2 hours · £20

Bringing it together at the table — your role, routines, and food acceptance.

When a child finds eating hard, parents often want strategies — and quickly. But strategies only work when they're matched to what's actually going on for your child. Eating is one of the most complex everyday activities a child does: it brings together sensory processing, motor skills, oral motor skills, physical and emotional health, and communication. For most children with feeding difficulties, more than one of these is part of the picture.

This course is the foundation step before strategies. Speech and Language Therapist Laura Osman and Occupational Therapist Louisa Hargett — both Advanced Sensory Integration Practitioners and feeding therapists — walk you through the developmental milestones of feeding, the five contributing factors when eating feels hard, and how to identify which mix is at play for your child.

By the end, you'll have a much clearer picture of your child's feeding experience — and the language to describe it accurately to GPs, paediatricians, dieticians, SLTs, and OTs. Many parents tell us this clarity is what finally gets them taken seriously by professionals. The course is reflective rather than prescriptive: structured "My Child's…" sections throughout invite you to apply what you're learning to your own child as you go.

What you'll explore

Across the course, Laura and Louisa cover:

• Feeding milestones — what typical feeding development looks like, and where children may have moved through differently
• Why every child is different — and why a single explanation rarely captures what's going on
• Sensory integration and feeding — including how the senses combine in every bite
• Physical and motor skills — sitting, posture, hand-to-mouth coordination
• Oral motor skills — the lips, tongue, jaw, and palate working together for safe, comfortable eating
• Physical and emotional health — including the role of past medical experiences, anxiety, and gut comfort
• Communication — how a child's communication profile interacts with feeding
• The complexity of feeding when several factors interact — and how to start to untangle them