Training
SPOON is a global leader in training on feeding and nutrition for vulnerable children, especially those living outside of family care and those with disabilities. We provide training on the topics of nutrition, feeding, and disability to professionals who work with children or caregivers.
A History of Training
Training has always been central to what SPOON does–we have been delivering trainings internationally since 2012. From China to Belarus, we have worked with thousands of trainees in 19 countries. Our curriculum has been reviewed and adopted by government ministries in countries such as Zambia and Vietnam.
Our global network of trainers is led by our in-house experts, who are the primary authors of all of our training materials. Our Nutrition Scientist, Zeina Makhoul, has a PhD in Nutritional Sciences with a focus on international nutrition. Our Feeding and Disability Specialist, Kate Miller, has an MS in Speech-Language Pathology and nine years of experience in clinical practice, including six years of focus on pediatric feeding and swallowing.
Depending on partner needs, we deliver in-person and remote trainings.
Our Online Curriculum
For greater scale–and to meet the global need during the COVID-19 pandemic–we have adapted our training content for an online platform, producing a core curriculum of fifteen self-paced courses.
The courses include a foundational base on the topics around nutrition, feeding, and disability as they relate to children. The second half of the curriculum focuses on more applied skills such as positioning children with disabilities for feeding, specialized feeding techniques, and measuring children’s growth.
All of our courses contain a bundle of printable course resources such as handouts, glossaries, and a summary of the course’s key messages.
We deliver our online courses with an array of facilitation strategies to simulate the best parts of being in-person in order to create a remote training package. This includes video-conference-based interactive sessions, online discussion forums, and webinar-style Q & A’s.
Our international trainings are designed for professionals in childcare-related fields, such as pediatricians, nurses, nutritionists, rehabilitation workers, social workers, community health workers, special educators, and staff working in residential care institutions.
Our Training Syllabus
Introduction
- Introduction to Nutrition and Feeding for Children
- Nutrition for Children
- Developmental Feeding Skills
- Disability, Feeding, & Nutrition
Feeding & Nutrition
- Foods for Healthy Growth
- About Iron-deficiency Anemia
- Best Practices for Mealtime
- Screening for Feeding Difficulties
- Feeding & Nutrition Counseling
Feeding Strategies
- Positioning for Mealtime
- Skills for Mealtime & Specialized Feeding Techniques
- Strategies for Feeding Infants
Nutrition Assessment
- Measuring Growth
- Interpreting Growth
- Measuring Hemoglobin
