Certification Course in Administration and Scoring of the NOMAS®

Course Description

The three-day NOMAS® comprehensive course offers one day of background information in anatomy, physiology, components, types and patterns of infant sucking and oral-motor development of the neonate. Days two and three will include beside observation and scoring of sucking performance during routine feedings in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, scoring of selected and required videotapes, discussion, and finally, a reliability check in your competence and accuracy on scoring both category and characteristic of infant sucking patterns. Special arrangements will be made for participants who do not become reliable by the end of this course.

Course Background

The NOMAS® (Neonatal Oral-Motor Assessment Scale) was developed in 1983 and has since become a reliable tool for the evaluation of neonatal sucking patterns in pre-term and term infants. The NOMAS® provides a comprehensive description of the infant's feeding patterns and enables the examiner to identify normal oral-motor patterns and to differentiate disorganized from dysfunctional patterns. The NOMAS® is used for pre- and post-test measurements to determine treatment effectiveness: to record developmental progression and change of oral-motor patterns: and to confirm oral-motor dysfunction or disorganization in the poor feeder. It is important to accurately identify the infant's feeding pattern so that appropriate treatment may be prescribed. Performance on the NOMAS® is predictive of developmental outcome at 24 months of age.

Who should attend?

The NOMAS® Certification Course (3 days) is recommended for professionals who evaluate feeding disorders in pre-term and term infants in the NICU, conduct in-service training on infant feeding issues; plan to research infant feeding; require a predictable tool for assessment which enables formulation of accurate prognosis as well as developmental outcome; need a pre-and post-test measure to determine treatment effectiveness.