OTvest supports Oral Motor and Feeding challenges
OTvest™ Support for Feeding, Picky Eating, and Oral Motor Challenges, Dysphagia
Feeding and oral motor difficulties can make mealtimes stressful for children, teens, and adults alike. The OTvest™ denim, deep pressure weighted vest offers a simple, non-invasive approach that promotes calm, stability, and body awareness—helping individuals feel more secure and focused during feeding and swallowing activities.
Many picky eaters experience underlying oral motor or sensory challenges. When the body feels organized and calm, mealtimes can become more positive and productive. The OTvest™ "FEELS GOOD" to wear, and its deep pressure therapy can naturally support relaxation and reduce anxiety that often interferes with eating.
How the OTvest™ Supports Functional Feeding Skills
Successful feeding relies on strong postural foundations. The OTvest™ provides deep pressure proprioceptive input that supports:
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Trunk, neck, and head alignment
The OTvest provides a calming effect to help reduce the anxiety of oral motor sensitivities. -
Trunk stability
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Improved chest opening for respiration
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Kinesthetic awareness (one's sense of body position) through the deep pressure input
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Calming, focus, and stress reduction
A stable trunk promotes better neck and head control, which in turn supports oral motor control for chewing, sucking, swallowing, and speech production. Stuttering is often reduced when the OTvest is worn because of the calming influence, and reduction of anxiety.
The Importance of Positioning
One of the most essential elements in treating feeding and swallowing difficulties is proper positioning and symmetrical alignment of the head, trunk, and oral structures. The OTvest™ aids this process by:
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Symmetrically stabilizing the trunk for improved cervical/head position
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Surrounding the shoulder girdle with a unique, patented weight insert
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Distributing flat, quilted weights evenly across the front and back of the wearer
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Promoting scapular stability, which is vital for trunk control
Unlike many weighted vests that rely on pockets of weights or weights in hems that rest on the chair when seated, the OTvest™ design keeps weight positioned around the shoulder girdle to provide consistent therapeutic input.
Proper seating and support for hips and feet remain important for self-feeding skills. The OTvest™ works in conjunction with good positioning to provide a strong postural foundation for developing the finer muscles of the lips, tongue, and throat.
A Calming Influence on Feeding
Eating is influenced by many personal and environmental factors, including stress, sensory differences, muscle tone, and medical conditions. Research highlights how stress and low muscle tone can negatively affect feeding performance (Berry & Foster, 2016).¹
The soothing deep pressure touch provided by the OTvest™ can help reduce stress during meals while supporting postural security and muscle tone. This calming effect may also be beneficial for individuals experiencing stuttering or speech difficulties when stress is a contributing factor.
Clinical Expertise Behind the OTvest™
The OTvest™ was created by Nancy VandenBerg, MS, OTR, who has over 35 years of direct treatment experience working with infants through young adults with feeding and swallowing disorders. She is trained in Bobath/NDT (directly from Berta and Karel Bobath) and sensory motor integration, and has extensive experience treating oral motor dysfunction and physical disabilities.
Nancy has collaborated closely with speech-language pathologists, parents, and interdisciplinary teams in both home and classroom settings. She has 7 years of experience in establishing feeding programs for infants through adults, progressing feeders from liquid to solid eating.
Why Weight Placement Matters
Effective results depend on where and how weight is applied. The OTvest™ design uses physics to its advantage—strategically applying gentle downward pressure around the shoulder girdle. This allows:
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Effective therapeutic input with less overall weight needed for efficacy
Patented concealed weight insert with weight evenly distributed front and back shown left. -
Consistent deep pressure input
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Greater postural support than vests with weights that only pull downward
- The OTvest™ gently pushes the weight down into the wearer's sensory receptors
“Eating is a complex task influenced by the child’s [or adult’s] personal and contextual factors. Appetite, motivation, stress, gastrointestinal problems, prematurity, respiratory disorders, cardiac disorders, sensory differences, and developmental disabilities are personal factors that can influence eating… the interaction of the child’s [or adult’s] personal factors (low muscle tone) and environmental (stress) negatively affects occupational performance.” (Berry & Foster, 2016)¹
The soothing, calming deep pressure therapy provided by the weights in the OTvest™ help reduce the stress that can add to the eating difficulty, as well as address the tone issues through increasing trunk stability and postural security. In this way, the OTvest™ can be used as a treatment for stuttering, where improved relaxation and stress reduction can result in a decrease in stuttering.
An infant, child’s, teen’s or adult’s work on oral motor function and/or dysphagia can benefit from trunk stabilization by using the OTvest™ denim weighted vest because of the unique, patented weight insert. The deep pressure therapy from the strategically placed weights in the OTvest™ can increase kinesthetic body awareness, promote a sense of calm and well-being – reducing stress while eating, and improve body stability.
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Look for the yellow "OTvest" label on the chest pocket to make sure you are getting the genuine OTvest™.
OTvest, LLC has been providing calming, deep pressure and trunk stability since 2002 with thousands of wearers.
References:
¹Berry, J., Foster, L. Unraveling the reasons for food refusal in children. OT Practice, May 23, 2016. 21-23.
Grandin, T. (1992). Calming effects of deep touch pressure in patients with autistic disorder, college students, and animals. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, Vol. 2, 1.
VandenBerg, N., (2001). The use of weighted vests to increase on-task behavior in children with attention difficulties, American Journal of Occupational Therapy, Vol. 55, 621-628. doi:10.5014/ajot.55.6.621
This research is also in the book, Pediatric Issues in Occupational Therapy: A Compendium of Leading Scholarship (Royeen, 2004) published by AOTA (N. VandenBerg, Chapter 25.)