Supporting SEND families through food, play and nutrition

A nutrition project in Reading and Wokingham has helped children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families, to make healthier food choices.

Dingley’s Promise, a charity providing early years education for children with SEND, secured funding from the University of Reading’s Community Engagement Fund to support the delivery of nutrition focused sessions at their Reading and Wokingham centres. Nutrition is a challenging area for families of children with SEND who often have limited food intake and can only tolerate certain foods.

The aim of the project was to provide positive food experiences for the children and their families and in doing so improve the children’s relationship with food and tolerance to a greater variety of food flavours and textures.

Working with Professor Kate Harvey and Natalie Ellison from the University’s School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences, the project included face-to-face and online information sessions, offering practical advice on healthy eating, and sharing resources and information tailored to the specific challenges and sensory needs of each individual child. 

Food exploration activities have now been introduced at the charity’s nursery sessions in Reading and Wokingham, helping children to explore new foods in a safe, engaging environment. These sessions use texture, colour and sensory experiences to build on familiarity and reduce food anxiety. Food exploration activities included exploring beans in pods, painting with yoghurt and making potions with squeezy fruits.

The project also delivered a dedicated ‘food play’ playscheme, which provided an opportunity for children to develop greater confidence around food, while their families received ongoing support to use strategies in the home to continue this process.

Professor Kate Harvey, from the University of Reading, said: “It has been a pleasure to work with Dingley’s Promise on how using food exploration activities can increase children’s familiarity with healthy food. The nursery has now introduced many creative ways to engage the children on this topic, and we’re delighted that their confidence around new foods has improved. This demonstrates how effective these approaches can be.”

Funding from the University has enabled Dingley’s Promise to provide free healthy snack options for children each week, including ones that cater for individual dietary needs and sensory preferences. In addition, a fruit/vegetable bowl is now available at each centre, allowing families to take fresh produce at no cost as and when they need.

Hannah Goddard, Centre Manager at Dingley’s Promise, said: “This project has supported us to create calm, creative food experiences that support children and their families. We’ve seen the children growing in confidence around new foods and significantly increase the variety of foods they try. This in turn has had a positive impact on their nutritional intake and readiness to learn.

“Parents have also told us they feel more confident offering new foods at home and that is really what these sessions have been designed to help with.”