National Association of Neonatal Therapists (NANT)

10/26/2026

🏠 Member Benefit ➡️ Transition From NICU to Home: Key Talking Points for the Neonatal Therapist 📋

Discharge teaching can overwhelm parents with last-minute information. Neonatal therapists can support a smoother transition by streamlining their talking points and discharge literature.

This 8-page guide covers essential topics for parent education at discharge, including:

💤 Safe sleep
🕰️ Tummy time
📆 Corrected age
🧠 Developmental milestones
🚼 Early intervention
🦵 Healthy hips
🍼 Feeding
🤱 Calming techniques

Members, get your free copy today in the NANT Hub! Non-members can purchase this invaluable resource and receive a digital copy via email.

🔗 Get Your Copy: https://neonataltherapists.com/transition-from-nicu-to-home/ 🔗

10/22/2026

What does it look like to help someone feel seen, heard, and valued?

In the NICU, it might be noticing a baby’s subtle cue.
It might be giving a parent time to ask one more question.
It might be listening to a colleague who’s had a hard day.

Sometimes connection happens in the smallest moments. And those moments can matter more than we realize.

As we begin our journey toward NANT 17, we’re reflecting on what connection looks like in neonatal care and in our community.

💙 Connection Heals.

10/22/2026

Neonatal Therapists - check out this video that not only highlights the clinical benefits of a swaddle or immersion tub bath in the hospital, but also the design elements that make The TurtleTub Bathing Cart unique and great to use with families.

And the sweet baby! 🥹🥰

*From our Partner, Turtle Tub

10/20/2026

Nominate a colleague for a NANT Excellence Award! Help us recognize and honor neonatal therapists’ significant contributions to the specialty.

https://neonataltherapists.org/2027excellenceawards

Nominate a Colleague for an excellence award! Help us recognize and honor neonatal therapists’ significant contributions to the specialty.

10/20/2026

🏆 NANT 17 Excellence Awards Are Now Open! 🏆

Let’s celebrate the neonatal therapists who are making a difference in clinical practice and research.

NANT is now accepting nominations for our peer-nominated Excellence Awards:

💙 Excellence in Clinical Practice
Honoring a neonatal therapist who demonstrates excellent assessment and intervention skills, advances clinical practice in the NICU, and collaborates effectively with the NICU team.

📚 Excellence in Research
Honoring a neonatal therapist whose published research has contributed to the evidence supporting and advancing neonatal therapy.

You can nominate yourself, a colleague, or both! We'd love to hear about the people whose work is making a difference in neonatal therapy.

We'll celebrate the award recipients at NANT 17 in Orlando. 🌟

➡️ Submit your nomination today:
https://nantconference.com/excellence-awards/

10/19/2026

NANT's Core Value Spotlight: Resilience

💪 In the NICU, progress is more important than perfection.

We believe in the power of resilience: facing challenges with grit and gratitude, learning from our mistakes, and standing back up stronger each time.

We honor every step of the journey, knowing that even small moments of progress make a world of difference for the babies and families we serve.

🌸

10/16/2026

What do our words convey to families? 🤔

For neonatal therapists, bedside conversations are an important part of clinical care. Our language can influence how families understand their child's possibilities and navigate the uncertainty of the NICU.

Drawing on Church et al. (2024), here are several considerations for our NICU practice:

✔️ Audit your language to identify and interrupt assumptions about disability and quality of life.
✔️ Replace labels such as normal, at-risk, or abnormal, which may unintentionally shape how families perceive their child's future.
✔️ Use a strength-based approach---recognizing each baby's emerging abilities, responses, and capacity for development while discussing potential support needs alongside the diagnosis.
✔️ Honor individual preferences for person-first or identity-first terminology.
✔️ Center families' values and hopes, leaving space for their questions and evolving understanding.

We may not always find the perfect words. Thoughtful, compassionate, and culturally responsive communication can support understanding, hope, and informed decision-making.

Read the article: https://doi.org/10.3390/children11020242

10/14/2026

🌟 Today is the Day! 🌟

Our Neonatal Therapy Leadership Meetup is happening today, and there’s still time to join us!

Whether you're new to leading or have years of experience, bring your questions about leadership, career direction, projects, or whatever you're working through right now.

Join Sue Ludwig, OTR/L, CNT, and Chrysty Sturdivant, OTR, CNT, for a free, open-access conversation with the neonatal therapy community. 💙

👉 Still time to register!
🔗 https://neonataltherapists.com/meetups/

See you there! 👋

10/13/2026

🍼 Advancing Feeding Readiness with the Prefeeding Pathways Framework

How do we know what kind of prefeeding support an infant needs right now?

The Prefeeding Pathways framework gives neonatal therapists a structured, developmentally grounded way to think through that question and create meaningful learning opportunities for medically complex infants as they prepare for oral feeding.

Taught by Aleksandra Popkowska-Gutierrez, MS, CCC-SLP, CNT, IBCLC, NTMTC and Rachel Selman, MS, OTR/L, CNT, NTMTC, this 1 hour course introduces three pathways for guiding treatment planning:

🩵 Foundation Pathway
Supporting positive oral sensory and motor experiences that build the foundation for future feeding behaviors.

🩵 Guided Progression Pathway
Breaking oral feeding into manageable steps and gradually increasing the challenge of milk exposure and delivery.

🩵 Performance Pathway
Addressing specific skill areas such as strength, rhythmicity, control, and endurance that can affect prefeeding efficiency.

This course includes case studies and videos demonstrating how the framework is translated into clinical practice.

➡️ Available now in your NANT Learning Hub:
https://neonataltherapists.com/courses/advancing-feeding-readiness-with-the-prefeeding-pathways-framework/

10/09/2026

🌟 Neonatal Therapy Leadership Meetup 🌟

Are you an experienced neonatal therapist looking to grow your leadership skills, move a project forward, or find clarity about what’s next in your career?

Whether you practice in the U.S. or internationally, you don’t have to navigate those next steps alone.

Join Sue Ludwig, OTR/L, CNT and Chrysty Sturdivant, OTR, CNT at the Neonatal Therapy Leadership Meetup happening in a little under a week!

Bring your questions about projects, career direction, leadership, or those moments when you're just not sure what the next step should be. Come ready for real conversation, practical ideas, and support from others who understand this work. 💙

📅 Happening in less than a week!
💻 Free, open-access virtual meetup

👉 Register today and save your spot!
🔗 https://neonataltherapists.com/meetups/