Occupational Therapy News OTnews January 2019 | Page 26

FEATURE CHILDREN’S SERVICES
The food
explorers
group
The development of a ‘Food
Explorers’ group for boys
with learning difficulties has
been having positive results. Laura
Hawkins and Sarah Motto explain.
W
e are two occupational therapists
currently working in More House
School in Farnham, Surrey, with boys
with specific learning difficulties,
who have recently developed a group called ‘Food
Explorers’ for children aged 12 to 13 in year seven,
who we identified as having a limited diet.
The group, which runs over seven weeks, aims
to discover food through play, with the emphasis
being around the sensory properties of the food, for
example the smell, touch and look of the food, with
the intention for children to try to taste the food when
they feel ready and confident to.
Recognising the gap in our service
As occupational therapists, we identified an area of
need for the children that we work with in our school,
and looked for opportunities to develop our service to
meet this need, following one of us attending specific
training in October 2016. This supported us to create
and run the group in our service.
Difficulties surrounding meal times and eating have
been commonly identified with children with Autism
Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and this is something that
we have both observed and were becoming more
aware of (Marshall et al 2014).
Difficulties not only relate to nutrition (Herndon
et al 2009), but also the skills involved, such as
using cutlery. The sensory properties of food and
the routines and anxieties that may come as a result
during meal times (Marshall et al 2014) are also
factors that influence they children’s engagement.
Research has identified anxiety and sensory
sensitivity to be associated with selective eating
26 OTnews January 2019
(Farrow and Coulthard 2012); this is an area that
we were also aware of in our environment and
considered when planning our group, by using
sensory strategies at the beginning and calming
activities to finish.
We also ensured that each child had a ‘safe food’
provided in each session, which is a food that they
were able to tolerate – the most common food was
bread.
We incorporated 10 foods into each session,
and at week four we changed some of the foods,
swapping them for foods with similar sensory
properties, for example taking away cucumber and
including pepper. The children were also given an
opportunity to identify foods that they would like to
explore, which were incorporated into the group.
Benefits for the children and service
We are providing a holistic approach for the children
at the school, supporting them to engage in everyday
activities to enhance occupational performance and
engagement.
With the ‘Food Explorers’ group we have
reinforced communication with parents and have also
raised awareness of nutrition and the importance
of this on the children’s occupational engagement
and performance, to access the curriculum and for
teachers to understand how it will influence their
school day if the children are not eating.
We are also communicating with form teachers
and raising awareness of the issue of selective
eating for the boys in the school, demonstrating the
effectiveness of liaising with other professionals and
using a whole school approach (HCPC 2017).