Dysphagia Swallowing Strategies Cheat Sheet

A cheat sheet chart for dysphagia professionals that helps you compare different strategies so that you can decide what is appropriate for your patients. The exercises are categorized into:

• The stages of the swallow
• Whether the strategy is environmental, a bolus modification, a compensatory swallowing maneuver, or a restorative swallowing exercise

Additionally, each strategy has a quick note of the rationale for using this, and contraindications. When working with people with dysphagia, it's so important not to get overwhelmed and make decisions without understanding the full picture, and this cheat sheet will help with each piece of the puzzle!

I can't paste a table here but here is an example of the cheat sheet information for one section:

Compensatory Swallowing Maneuvers

Chin tuck: To prevent posterior spillage; CONTRAINDICATION if labial impairment, arthritis

Head tilt: Weakness on one side, tilt AWAY from weakness

Head turn: Turn toward side of weakness to direct food to the other side

Multiple swallows: To get rid of oral residue

Tongue sweep: Pocketing, direct patient to increase awareness

Oral sensory techniques: Sour, cold, large, carbonated, chewable, thermal-tactile stimulation (but poor data and needs to be done every swallow), downward pressure of the spoon on the tongue)

This resource contains 4 pages as a .docx file and is easily printable.

If you like this resource, you'll also like the partner resource to this, a dysphagia diet bolus modification cheat sheet! Or check out my growing dysphagia bundle here for more savings! This product is included in the bundle, so make sure you aren't buying it twice!