Learners get “sweet” reinforcement at Little Star Center-Bloomington

Food pairing with any learner or person with or without disabilities has to be individualized! During the month of April, our learners at Little Star Center-Bloomington were introduced to different foods in an attempt to reinforce tasting one new food per week.

We specifically picked out food that the learners could put together as well as try. The foods were with bright colors, sweet and, yes, sometimes, sugary! Some of the foods included were chocolate with granola over apples, “Ants on a Log,” which is cream cheese on celery with raisins and Rice Krispy treats. The goal was to have 100 percent of our learners try new foods!

Trying the new food was defined as taking one bite.  If the learner took more than one bite, that data was not collected.

So far, we have seen two of our learners generalize this skill to their home environment.  One learner only ate Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and Cheez-Its every day she came in for therapy.  Since we have started tasting new foods each week, this learner is now requesting that her mother pack her fruits and vegetables in her lunch.  One day, this learner’s lunch consisted of carrots, celery and strawberries.

Another learner apparently took a piece of celery that was on his mother’s plate.

Sweet success!