Fussy about food (Part 2):  Strategies

Sensory integration

﻿In today's lesson, we're going to carry on looking at different strategies that we can do, to help our sense of touch to tolerate food a little bit better. We as therapists have tried to think of the best way to continue to support children, young people and their families. We will be exploring topic areas that we regularly provide advice, and support on across all ages and abilities. Each lesson will have ideas and activities that can be carried out at home or in school. This information is to be used alongside any specific strategies or resources which have been given by your child's school or therapist. If you have any questions or would like help tailoring this to your child's needs, then please contact your local therapy service. In today's lesson, we're going to think about more games to play to help our hands be brave and touch food. So for this lesson you are going to need some cooked vegetables or fruits, such as butternut, apples or banana, or you may want to kind of think about yoghourt or pureed food. You're also going to need some vegetable sticks, and you're going to need a plastic ziplock freezer bag, and some duct tape. So once you have all of these things ready, please press Play and we will carry on with this lesson. Okay, first of all, we are going to do some food painting. So let's see what we need. You're going to need some yoghourt and pureed food that you're going to use as paint. So with your parent or carer, make sure that you've got all of these things ready. And then you can use vegetable sticks, or you can use your fingers if you want to. And you can use these as paint brushes. So you're going to put a little bit of yoghourt or pureed food on a plate, and then you can paint a picture. So what you're going to do is you're going to pause the video here, to complete your task. And then once you're finished, you can press Play again. Oh, before I forget, you can also take a picture and then at the end I will explain to you how you can share what you've done with oak National Academy. So pause the video now, do your task, and then press Play, and we will carry on with the lesson. Great, I hope you had fun doing that. We are going to do some more squishy things. We are going to make a squishy food bag. So what you're going to need for this is you are going to need some of those cooked vegetables or fruit. So, a substance that's really squishy. And then you're going to, what we're going to do is we're going to pause the video, and you're going to ask your parent or carer to help you with this. So first of all, you're going to need your plastic Ziplock bag, your cooked vegetables, and then you going to, I will explain to you what we're going to do. So, you're going to scoop the cooked vegetables into the bag, just a little bit so you will see I have done one. So I'm going to show you what it looks like. Here we go. You can see I've only folded about a quarter, so not half, but only a quarter. So that's what I have done. I filled it with that, and next, what you need to do is you need to tape the top, and the sides of the bag to make sure that it's nice and strong. And now you can kind of go on squishing. So, what I'm actually going to do, is I'm going to open my bag up, here we go, and I've got some yoghourt that I've added in here, and I thought I will add some blueberries. So there goes one blueberry two blueberries three four blueberries in there. I'm going to close it up. And now I can do some squishing and you will see, I hope you can see it, there's a blueberry popping up. So I am just having a lovely little play with my squishy food bag. So you're going to make your food bag. Very important to use the duct tape all around the edges, to make sure that it's really securely wrapped. And once you've done, press Play, and we will carry on, and we'll play another game. Brilliant. Well done. I hope you're enjoying having kind of squishy food games today. The next game we're going to play is one of my favourites. It's called "The Vegetable Game" and this is how it works. You're going to pause the video here, to complete the task. You will need to play this game with your parent or carer or some of the family, and you can even teach your friends how to play it. So how it works is everybody sit around in a circle works really well. And then you're going to think of a fruit or a vegetable. So that could be an apple, a pear, a pineapple. You could think of a carrot, anything, so every person chooses a different fruit or vegetable. And the idea of the game, is that you're going to do a clapping routine. And every time you clap, the person who starts will say, their own vegetable name, and then they will call another vegetable name of one of the people in the group. And you have to keep to the rhythm. So, and the other trick with this game, and this is the funny bit is that you are not allowed to show your teeth. So the person who laughs the first he's out and then you carry on. And you see who can carry on with the rhythm, and the food names, without their teeth showing. So this can be really tricky. So I'm going to kind of come really close to the screen, so you can see what I mean by this. So if I want to say, apple, apple, I will go, apple, apple. If I want to say banana, banana, I will go, banana, banana. Can you hear how funny that sounds? So it's a really funny game, and I'm usually one of the first people to be out because I just cannot stop laughing. So if I'm going to be an apple, and I'm going to pretend that you have chosen banana, so I'm going to call you, and then you will have to answer. So I'm going to call, so we're going to clap, apple, apple. Oop! I've got to kind of showing my teeth. Here we go, apple, apple, banana, banana. Now you will have to answer and say, banana, banana, apple, apple. Or you can say, banana, banana, pear, pear, and then the other person has to, either use pear, has to answer then. So have fun with this really silly game, and then press Play when you're finished. Remember, it can be tricky to try new foods, and it takes a lot of time. So I know that we've played really silly games today, but, it's all to help you to kind of think about foods, and for you to kind of, really slowly slowly try and be brave, to try and have a look at them first, get your eyes used to them, and then start to play with the food, doing really silly games, and all of that will help you to eventually have the courage to maybe try some of the foods. So looking and touching at foods will really help you to be braver. So have fun. And remember to share, some of your pictures that you've made, your painting with food pictures, with Oak National, and I will explain to you how to do that. Have fun today. Share your work with Oak National. If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

Fussy about food (Part 2): Strategies

Fussy about food (Part 2): Strategies

These resources will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

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