Eating Cookie Together can be an RDI Activity too!

Eating to us is a form of comfort, and so is for children. When we share a snack with our children, we are building relationships and connections with them. At the same time, we are creating an opportunity for interaction and mindful guidance.

As we hand a cookie to the child, we can use this opportunity to share our experience of the cookie. For example, “Hmmm, the cookie is so crunchy, and sweet!” We can also insert some fun and variation into this snack-sharing activity. We can eat in different playful ways. Autistic children may find it challenging to accept changes, so it is important we take it one step at a time. Slowly introduce variation to prevent the child from being too overwhelmed.

Let me break it down more clearly for you. For example, at the beginning, instead of giving him a whole bowl of cookies, we can pass one cookie to the child, and wait for him to finish before passing him another one. This allows both the parent and the child to slow down and enjoy the process of eating. Once the child is able to accept eating the cookie one by one, we can insert some changes to the activity by you feeding him the cookie, and not letting him hold it.

At times, the child may throw temper tantrums if they are not the one that’s holding the cookie. It’s okay. This tells us that the child is not ready for changes. We can go back to the beginning, and enjoy the cookie one by one. It is important not to rush and force. We want to encourage you to be patient, to build trust and respect the child. Once the child has calmed down, we can try inserting a different kind of variation into the activity. We can eat “faster” or “slower”, we can eat in a “big” bite or a “small” bite. We want you to have fun and enjoy this process with your child.

In RDI, we focus on the process. And from the process, parents will be able to create more guiding opportunities and build stronger connections with their children.