Joan Arvedson is our pediatric representative of the Division 13 Steering Committee. Despite her heavy schedule she has agreed to provide material for a much needed column: The Pediatric Practice. This inaugural column is interactive, first you read the column then you fill out the questionnaire at the end this issue. Even if involved in other practice paradigms your feedback is critical for the Steering Committee to prepare for the future needs in the field of pediatric dysphagia.

In recent months, as the pediatric representative on the Steering Committee, I have received communications from some affiliates who express concerns related to speech-language pathology practice for pediatric patients with dysphagia. Examination and intervention involving infants and young children with feeding and swallowing problems require knowledge and experiential bases that are not simply translatable from adults to pediatrics. Some clinicians raise questions that indicate their educational preparation at the graduate level did not prepare them for this high risk and complex arena of practice in speech-language pathology. Decision making for infants and children who never had an intact neurologic system is markedly different from that with adults or older children who have suffered some insult at a later stage in life. Most infants and young children cannot participate actively in their intervention programs, which in turn means that intervention approaches are different from those with adults. Clinic research based data are critical components for the advancement of optimal intervention strategies. “How to” sessions without strong etiologic and physiologic underpinnings are inadequate for practicing clinicians.