Let’s have fun with literacy during an everyday routine – snack time! In this activity you and your child will learn a charming rhyme and make yummy pudding to go with it. It supports your child in learning independent living skills (especially feeding), introduces measurement and counting, and provides a multitude of sensory experiences. Spatial concepts such as “up,” “down,” “on,” and “in” are also introduced. The rhyme can make eating more fun and hopefully reduce the stress that some children with visual impairment experience during mealtime.
Objectives
Exposure to new taste and texture. Learn to engage all senses – touch, smell, taste, hearing, vision - during this experience.
Sometimes children with visual impairment have difficulty during mealtime due to a variety of factors such as sensory issues, structural differences, or behavioral issues. Use this experience to have fun with mealtime. Finding joy and staying positive during mealtime creates less stress for both you and your child.
Incorporate literacy with snack time. Use the rhyme to make mealtime more fun and to cue that it is snack time.
Learn new concepts that describe the activity of making and experiencing the pudding: up, down, fast, slow, heavy, light, on, off, cold, wet, and dry.
Interact with caregiver and others as you explore new sensations.
Use fine motor skills to help open the containers, put the lid on/off the jar, shake the jar, and eat or fingerpaint with the pudding.
Expanded Core Curriculum Areas Supported
Independent Living Skills: Feeding and food preparation.
Sensory Efficiency: Use senses to explore. What does the pudding sound like, smell like, feel like, taste like?
Social Skills: Bonding and communicating with caregiver during the activity.
Self-Determination: Choice making, decision making and problem solving. Encourage the child to make choices during the activity. Do you want to shake the pudding by yourself or shake with Mama? Do you want the yellow plate or the red plate? Give your child time to solve problems and ask for help if needed. Can your child open the pudding, or do they need to ask for help?
Recreation and Leisure: Preparing food, eating food, enjoying rhymes, and painting are all forms of recreation and leisure that many people enjoy their entire life.
Career Awareness: This activity teaches your child about preparing food and following directions in a sequence. It also demonstrates teamwork. These are skills needed in a career your child might have someday. Maybe your child would like to be a cook!
Compensatory Skills: Learning to use alternative techniques to promote engagement, exploration, and movement. Compensatory skills used in this situation involve listening, speaking, organization, and concept development.
Orientation and Mobility: Your child can learn to find the kitchen, locate the items needed for the activity, find objects on their tray, and use directional concepts such as “left”,” right,” and “above.” For example, the pudding box is on the left side of your tray, the milk is to the right of the jar, and the spoon is above your plate.
Everyday Routines Supported
This activity supports snack time, literacy time, and family time.
Suggested Next Steps to Use This Activity With Caregiver and Child
Discuss activity with caregiver to determine appropriateness and relevancy to family.
Forward the caregiver version of the activity to the caregiver.
Remind the primary caregiver one to two days before the home/virtual visit to gather the materials required.
Introduce the activity, discuss the objectives, and provide an overview of the possible steps.
Be prepared to break down the activities into a smaller subset as the child and family may not have the time or tolerance to complete all activities.
After completing this activity, consider extension activities that may be appropriate and relevant to the family.
