About Us

After completing her predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine/Kennedy Krieger Institute, Dr. Tessa Taylor remained on as a faculty in the Pediatric Feeding Disorders Program. This programme is the original and largest, and one of the few interdisciplinary behaviour-analytic programmes of its kind; treating the most severe and complex children from all over the world. She also interned on the Neurobehavioral Inpatient Unit (NBU-IP) for severe problem behaviour (e.g., pica, self-injury). 

Dr. Taylor’s highly specialised and unique training and expertise in paediatric feeding disorders and severe problem behaviour grants her the ability to diagnose and treat the full spectrum of complexity and severity of feeding difficulties. She founded Paediatric Feeding International in 2015.

Dr. Taylor is a Doctoral-level Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA-D). She obtained her Master’s degree in 2001 from Southeastern Louisiana University and her PhD in clinical psychology in 2010 from Louisiana State University, USA. She is a registered clinical psychologist in Australia and a former licensed clinical psychologist in the USA. She is a board approved supervisor for both behaviour analysis and psychology, and a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society (MAPS) College of Clinical Psychologists (FCCLP). 

She has authored nearly 60 peer-reviewed research publications and 3 book chapters, and has nearly 70 professional presentations and posters internationally (USA, Australia, Japan, Italy, France, Greece, Maldives, Ireland, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Philippines). She served as the Consortium Initiative Coordinator for the Association for Behavior Analysis International’s (ABAI) Pediatric Feeding Disorders Special Interest Group. Dr. Taylor was the President of the Association for Behaviour Analysis Australia (ABA Australia).

She is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, Christchurch, New Zealand in the Department of Psychology, Speech & Hearing | Te Kura Mahi ā-Hirikapo and School of Health Sciences | Te Kura Mātai Hauora.

Dr. Taylor has nearly 25 years of experience spanning a variety of ages (from toddlers to older adults), settings (homes, schools, group homes, developmental centres, hospitals, outpatient clinics), conditions (e.g., complex neurological, medical, and genetic conditions), and interdisciplinary team coordination areas (psychiatry, paediatrics, gastroenterology, allergy, dietetics, social work, speech therapy, occupational therapy, child life, education). For over 5 years, Dr. Taylor worked solely on intensive (e.g., 8 week hospitalisations) applied behaviour-analytic feeding treatment in a hospital setting with children ages 1 to 12 with a wide variety of complex developmental and medical diagnoses and concerns (e.g., autism, cerebral palsy, allergies, prematurity, Down syndrome, glycogen storage disease, tube dependence). She also provided services in the developmental playroom for outside of meal concerns (e.g., sleep, toileting, compliance, rumination, pica, aggression) and increasing adaptive skills (communication, social skills), and ran a parent training group. Dr. Taylor supervised therapists, master’s level behaviour analysis students, predoctoral interns, postdoctoral fellows, and provisional psychologists, and conducted both group and single-subject research. She has exceptionally strong research skills, particularly in methodology and statistical design and analysis, and in both group and single-case experimental designs and has provided consulting on statistics and grants for physicians and behaviour analysts.

https://psychology.org.au/drtessataylor

https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/science/contact-us/people/tessa-taylor.html

https://www.feedingmatters.org/providers/paediatric-feeding-international-dr-tessa-taylor/