The Eating Game was created as my response to a friend asking for "HELP!" She needed help for her son Ethan who was a six year old with autism. I knew Ethan well and I understood her frustrations and his with regards to his diet!
She felt that with a nutrition degree,my experience and passion for autism and my creative abilities that perhaps I could suggest a solution. This was not the first time I pondered a solution for helping kids who had eating issues.
Working as a special education teacher for 20 years, as an autism consultant and early interventionist after retiring from teaching, I saw so much need for intervention for children and their eating habits.
We know how important early intervention is for children who are experiencing difficulties of any kind - diet should be no exception! It would appear for most families once a baby is no longer nursing or drinking formula/milk and eating baby foods they are for the most part encouraged to eat what older family members eat and understandably copy adult behaviors when it comes to eating - not always a good plan!
In our efforts to teach children skills for independence we need to pay more attention to teaching them to make good food choices and to learn appropriate portion sizes. In Canada we have an ideal example of how to do this teaching - CANADA'S FOOD GUIDE! And it is free for the asking! It made sense to me to begin with this excellent resource, which is very similar to health recommendations in other countries.
I initially created The Eating Game for 1 child with autism. With it's immediate success I knew I had something that would be beneficial to many more children with autism. Indeed it has been that and much more as many other children have fun using it and improving their eating habits! Of course this is wonderful for today but more importantly it is hopefully the beginning of a lifetime of healthy eating!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment