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Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Independence in Packing Lunch

A student with a disability needs to know how to go through the steps it takes to eat a meal as an independent or semi independent adult. This begins with the task of shopping and food preparation broken down in many steps.

One of the first things I taught my son was how to pack his own lunch. I simplified the task greatly. I did not get zip lock bags out to put various snacks in. My son had prepackaged snacks to put in a disposable lunch sack. Keeping track of a lunch box or reusable containers was just not going to work if I wanted him to be independent. He was probably going to eat a yogurt cup, a individually wrapped beef stick or a cheese stick for his protein. He was 't going to make or eat a sandwich for lunch everyday and find a sandwich bag to put it in. This was NOT GOING TO HAPPEN unless I wanted to get a job coach for packing a lunch. Everything needed to be easy and disposable. He was going to have a hard enough time remembering to put lunch in his backpack on his own!


Besides the easy prep items for lunch, it is important to have a visual support to help your child know what to put in his lunch.

Choose One ITEM

From Each Group

1. Protein

2. Fruit

3. Vegetable

4. Grain/salty

5. Treat

Have a basket/container labeled with category filled with acceptable items. This is a starting place. It is independence with organizational support. It is a way to begin teaching a child to take care of his own meal preparation.

It would be much easier to pack it for your child but try to resist this temptation. It will be a lot more work to set up this system and slowly take away some of the supports allowing a child to orchestrate the lunch packing system alone. This is how he will learn first steps in taking care of his food/eating needs.