The Pringle

We had a very successful food school session this week.  As I have mentioned before, we are busy teaching Emma about how food can change by smell, colour, shape and texture, but still basically be the same.

So we had a lesson that was teaching our nose, eyes and mouth. 

We first started with her favorite, salt and vinegar delites.  As you all know, she loves those biscuits and will lick them ALL day if we let her.  She was busy licking and tasting and enjoying them very much.  Lainy and I were also busy licking them - its a POW taste.

Next we moved onto a chex biscuit - salt and vinegar flavour.  First of all Emma freaked out, but then we started to teach her nose, it smells the same as the delites, even though it looks different.  "Dont let it trick your eyes" Miss Lainy keeps telling Miss Emma.  But she was not happy with that biscuit.  So we took them away.

Then out came the pringle.  It is a BIG biscuit.  It can be overwhelming for the eyes.  And they were salt and vinegar flavour, so WOW, different shape but same smell.  "Dont let it trick your eyes" - "How about we teach our noses?"  Miss Lainy was pusing it a bit because she did not freak out so much when the pringle arrived on the table.

We smelt the pringle, hmmmm... BIG smell.  But hang on, I have salt on my fingers.  Ohhhh.... looks different, smells the same and puts salt crumbs on my fingers like the delites do.  Lets now teach the mouth

And she was off.  

So this is a massive acheivement.  So salt and vinegar pringles here we come.  WAHEY!!!! ...

The next thing we moved to was breakfast cereal.  It consisted of brightly coloured cereal balls.  A completely different smell, different colour but they were crumbly and textured on the outside just like her delites and the pringles before.  She then had to sort them into different colours. She coped very well with this exercise, but soon started to shut down due to the overwhelming  colours.












Next - we moved onto pudding.  Something of a completely different texture and food item - but linked to the pringle by the colour.
Here we are going to teach her not to let her eyes and nose trick her.  Emma spooned pudding into three containers and then picked three very different essences.  She chose peppermint, vanilla and coconut.  She then proceeded to place a few drops of essence into each container. 

What she was learning here is not to let her nose trick her eyes.  BIG smell, but everything still looked the same.  All three of them smelt different, but they were the same.

This was a very successful class.  Emma did not become overwhelmed or shut down at all.  When she started to withdraw Lainy drew her back and away and took the foods away.  I also am starting to learn to read the cues of Emma when it becomes too much.

I hope from this you can see what they have been teaching Miss Emma.  They have now the groundwork for Emma to start the biggest step in her life.  To start eating foods.  She knows that her eyes and nose can be tricked, but not to let them.

The next few days are going to be VERY exciting.