Have a meal
A plate holding three dishes at once is a different beast from three dishes in a row. The visual support further down breaks the meal into pieces a child can meet one by one.
♂Eat food
A smiling person in a blue shirt is eating a sandwich with a fork.
♂Man eating a slice of bread
A man in a blue top holds a plate of food and takes a bite from a slice of bread on his fork.
♂Man eating from a bowl
A man with curly hair holds a blue bowl and lifts a spoonful of orange food to his mouth with his eyes closed.
♀Eating carrot sticks
Seen from the side, a woman bites into a carrot stick while holding a blue bowl of carrot pieces.
♀Eating from a plate
A curly-haired woman in a blue t-shirt holds a white plate and lifts a piece of food to her mouth.
♀Eating with a fork
A girl with a ponytail in a red t-shirt lifts a yellow fork towards her mouth while holding a blue bowl.
♀Person eating vegetables with a fork
A smiling person sits at a table with a plate of tomato and broccoli and lifts a fork towards their mouth.
About this visual support
Many children handle chicken, potatoes and broccoli perfectly fine on their own – just not when the three sit side by side and the smells mix already on the way to the nose. It is not the chewing that gets hard, it is the brain having to sort three textures and tastes that arrive in parallel. Not starting at all becomes the easier option.
Visual support that shows the food as separate steps – first the peas, then the potato, then the sauce – gives a way in. The child meets one thing at a time, both on the card and on the plate, and what looked like a mountain becomes three smaller piles with order between them. Some children even like moving the card aside when that part is done.
A concrete tip: arrange the food on the plate in the same order as the pictures, and use a small bowl or the rim of the plate to keep the parts apart. Then reality and the visual support line up exactly. To build a calm meal routine with a silent timer and check-off, you can try Routined free for 14 days.
Use this image in a schedule
Build your own visual schedule with this image and download it as a print-ready PDF. Completely free.
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Eat what is offered
A boy holds a plate and lifts a forkful of food to his mouth.
Meal time
A boy sits at the table holding a fork and a knife in front of a plate of food.
Take the visual supports with you
In Routined you build schedules from these pictures, add timers and voice instructions, and your child follows the day on their own.
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