Lunch, part 2

In a continuation from the last post, as promised, here is our lunchtime routine.

• One of my parapros sits with the students at the group table while they play with sensory toys. My other parapro goes to the cafeteria with empty plates.  The cafeteria workers serve my students' lunches onto these plates instead of trays.  Mrs. Pfefferle uses one of the cafeteria carts to bring the lunch plates back to the class kitchen and puts them on the counter.  I pour drinks and put the cups at each students' place at the table.  
  
• I call students, one at a time, into the bathroom to wash their hands. 
• After washing hands, the student goes into the kitchen.  They get their plate from the counter and carry it to their seat.  Then I call the next student.
  

• We sit with the students at the table and encourage social communication.  Attainment makes some great placemats with communciation symbols on them that facilitate mealtime communication.  (Even for verbal students, the picture symbols provide reminders and cues.)
  
• We also encourage students to use their fork/spoon to eat
• We work on cutting,and pouring (refilling drinks, cutting food into bite sizes) as well
• When a student is finished eating, they carry their plate to the trash can, scrape their food into the trash, then bring their cup to the sink and pour out what's left of their drink.  We then help them wash their plate, silverware and cup, rinse them, and put them in the dish drain.  
• After finishing their dishes, the student goes back to their seat at the table so that they can continue to have conversations with their friends.  
• When everyone is finished eating and washing dishes, we pass around a soapy cloth and each student washes their part of the table. 
• The students go back to the table to play with sensory toys, one student puts the tablecloth and dishtowels in the washing machine and starts the laundry, then I call students one at a time to come back into the bathroom to brush their teeth.
  
  

Lunch

I mentioned that we work on communication intensively during snack time.  During lunch, we work on other things, mainly ADL (activities of daily living) and social skills.
I am very lucky in that my classroom has a fully equipped kitchen and a 12-seat dining room table.  We eat lunch in the class kitchen Monday through Thursday. On Friday, we eat in the cafeteria.
To avoid another super-long post, I'm going to explain why in this post and then go into more detail about what we do during lunch in the next post.


Why do we eat in the classroom?

• My students are learning how to participate in every-day activities both at home and in the community.  While functioning in the school environment is important, my main focus is on home and community - because that's where "real life" happens after they finish school. Now, at home and in the community, outside of cafeteria-style restaurants (which aren't the norm), mealtime is not similar to the school cafeteria experience.  In the classroom kitchen, we eat off of real plates, with real silverware.  We drink from cups instead of milk cartons.  We sit in chairs - with backs! 
• My students have sensory processing difficulties - the cafeteria is LOUD! 
• We work on table manners, using utensils, using a napkin, and communicating socially during lunch.  In the cafeteria (not even considering the noise that would be distracting to this instruction) this would draw attention to my students -- no one else in there has an adult sitting right next to them reminding them to use their fork (though many of them need someone there lol).

So why, you may ask, do we eat in the cafeteria? And why on Friday?

• School is part of their "real life" for the next several years.  It is important for them to have that cafeteria experience if possible (though, in my opinion, less important than learning table manners, social skills, etc)
  
• Friday at our school is always pizza day.  All nine of my students love pizza and are therefore focused on eating and less likely to engage in inappropriate behaviors.
• Pizza is supposed to be eaten with your hands! So we don't have to worry about the students sticking out by not using their fork.
  
• On Friday, several teachers have their whole class or a group of students eat in the classrooms as a reward - this makes the lunchroom a bit quieter.
• Friday is also ice cream day - which gives me a built in reinforcer to encourage appropriate lunchroom behavior - our lunch table is right next to the ice cream cooler, so it's likely they will remember to "be good" to get ice cream (makes the delayed reinforcer less abstract).