"At Home with Sylvia Miller"

Visual Supports in Real Life

(An Excerpt from 'My Very Own Tool Supply' by Sylvia Miller)

All About Food

The kitchen counter seemed like the appropriate area to set up visuals that teach them proper choices and limits at meal times or when snacking. The selections can be changed according to what is available or simply what you are willing to allow them to have. As they pick from the list, the picture is removed leaving an x'd out picture in its place. When choices are x'd out, there's no argument about whether they can have more.

The kitchen counter is also used as the negotiation counter.  This is where we discuss options such as "dinner before dessert" (first and then), "orange or cranberry?" (this or that), and of course the sometimes dreaded "yes" or "no". 

The kitchen is the heart of my home.  It is the center of the family room and is bordered by the dining room and the work area.  It seemed to be just the right place to introduce my guys to anything to do with food, including proper food storage and the concept of food shopping.  

Each cabinet, the refrigerator and the freezer all have replicas of them attached to the outside.  These serve as visual guides to teach my guys the appropriate places to store different foods.  To begin with, we emptied all of the contents onto the counter and as we placed each item where it belonged we put the corresponding picture in the appropriate replica.  Now, whenever the groceries are carried in and put away, their picture is placed in the appropriate visual.  The same is true when a food item is not available, only then the item is placed on a visual grocery list for the next shopping trip.

This page is currently under construction, so there is lots more information to come.

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