Fussy eating is common in children, particularly between the ages of 18 months and five years. Fussy eating can vary from the child who has a few specific likes and dislikes to the one who will only eat a limited range of familiar foods and refuses to try anything new.

It is important to remember that a healthy child with not starve themselves. Most fussy eaters manage to get enough nutrients to remain strong and develop normally until they grow out of it. Healthy children eat when they are hungry, and usually not before.

Tips to encouraging healthy eating:

• Keep meal and snack times regular – Smaller meals and snacks are easier for children to manage than three big meals.
• Choose healthy snacks. Offer fruit, milk, yoghurt, sandwiches, cracker biscuits and cereals.
• Avoid letting children fill up on drinks which may dull their appetite. Water is the way to go!! Limit cordials and soft drinks.
• Providing a variety of food from within the 5 main food groups will provide children with all necessary nutrients. If they don’t like pumpkin, try carrots. If they don’t like milk, try yoghurt or cheese.

Strategies for managing food aversions or fussy eating:

• Introduce new foods in a fun way to build up taste and textural tolerance.
  • Disguise food- Try shaping foods into something your child loves
  • Prepare food together – make it fun!!
  • Trial and Error – It can take ten or more tastes of a new food before a child will learn to accept a new flavour, so don’t give up if something is refused after one taste.

• Try preparing foods with textures your child likes. If they don’t like chewing meat, try softer meats e.g mince, or meat substitutes i.e baked beans.
• Offer a choice between two foods – This gives your child a sense of self control
• Let your child choose some food at the supermarket
• Praise your child when they try a new food!

Strategies to avoid:

• Forcing your child eat a new food by using negative language or punishing your child will create negative associations with eating the food.
• Ignoring the fussy eating i.e making separate meals for your child.

Written by Carmel Walsh – Speech Pathologist for De Silva Kids Clinic

Parallel play involves children playing next to each other in the same area with their own toys.

To target this play skill:

• Have two sets of the same toy set out on the floor
• Put a little bit of distance between yourself and your child
• Play with the toys separately
• Be sure to talk to your child about what you are doing and comment on what they are doing!

RECIPROCAL PLAY

Reciprocal play involves engaging in a play activity with another person. Many language skills can be targeted when engaging in reciprocal play (turn taking, sharing, verbal communication, following directions – just to name a few!).

When your child has mastered the above play skills, encourage them to engage in reciprocal play. You can do this using any play activity or game that involves two people. Examples include pop-up-pirate, throwing and catching a ball, board games and using blocks to build a tower.

If you have any concerns about your child’s play skills, call us today and have a chat about whether there is any way we can help you.

Written by Sarah Pritchard – Speech Pathologist at De Silva Kids Clinic.

Learning Through Reinforcement: Operant Conditioning

What is Reinforcement?

• Reinforcement is the consequence or feedback given to a child following their behaviour or response.
• It is given following a correct or desirable response

Types of Reinforcement

• POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT: The addition of something pleasant. Examples: toys, food, social praise, sensory feedback
• NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT: The removal of something unpleasant. Examples: finishing work, going on a break, turning off a loud sound
• Both Positive and Negative Reinforcement INCREASE the likelihood of a behaviour occurring again in the future and creates desire and motivation to learn

Punishment

• The removal of something pleasant (e.g., taking away a toy, turning off the TV, etc.) or the addition of something unpleasant (e.g., more work, clean up, etc.)
• Punishment is NOT reinforcement
• In theory, punishment is designed to DECREASE the likelihood of a behaviour occurring again in the future.
• NOTE: The effects of punishment are often short term

Reinforcement should be:

• Contingent on the child’s behaviour/response. Example: If a child says “ball” they should receive the ball as reinforcement, not something unrelated such as tickles or a high 5

• Immediately following a child’s behaviour/response. Do not allow a delay
• Consistent. All those working with the child should be reinforcing the child the same way, and for the same behaviours. Reinforcement needs to be extremely frequent when teaching a new skill
• Graded. Reinforcement should be dependent on the QUALITY of a child’s response. Higher reinforcement should be reserved for highly desirable responses/behaviour. Remember to reinforce attempts also to maintain the child’s motivation.

Playing with transport toys such as trains, cars and trucks can be a fun and engaging way to help support your child’s language development. Use the following cheat sheet to help work on these communication skills whilst you and your child are playing with transport!

Describing/labelling

Colour: red, blue, yellow, green etc.

Size: big, little, small

Shape: circle, round, square

Sound: whistling, noisy and loud

Speed: fast, slow, quick

Expanding vocabulary

Nouns: sounds (horn), parts of transport (wheels), places they go (road), traffic signs (stop signs)

Functions: what are different parts used for? (horn, wipers, wings)

Concepts: under, around, next to, behind, in front, between

Receptive language

Following directions: give directions using prepositions (e.g. under, around, next to, behind, in front, between, on, off)

Action words

• Go
• Push
• Stop
• Drive
• Pull
• Park
• Open
• Close
• Steer
• Move
• Start
• Fly
• Brake
• Turn
• Open/close

Play and social skills

• Encourage joint attention and pretend play
• Make eye contact and sharing
• Construct together and make stories
• Practise giving and following directions
• Learn road rules

Written by Sarah Pritchard, Speech Pathologist at De Silva Kids Clinic

Many families have heard about Autism (or Autism Spectrum Disorder “ASD”) but it is sometimes hard to know what to look out for in your own child. Children with autism have a range of skills and abilities and don’t all act the same way. Here are just a few signs that may indicate it’s worth seeking advice from a healthcare professional:

• Your child doesn’t talk as much as other children their age
• Your child doesn’t respond when you call their name
• Your child doesn’t use eye contact to share interest with others
• Your child has difficulty with changes in routine
• Your child goes out of their way to avoid sensory input or seeks it out
• Your child uses toys in repetitive ways and doesn’t like ‘pretend play’

If you have a child between 11 and 30 months old, you can also use a free app called ‘ASDetect’ to monitor your child’s social attention and communication behaviours. The app was developed at La Trobe University in Melbourne and is free and easy to use.

More information on ASD and child development is also available on the Raising Children’s Network.

Written by Eleanor Brignell – Speech Pathologist for De Silva Kids Clinic.

Children struggle with problem solving and self-regulation at all ages and Michelle Garcia Winner has created a wonderful creative resource for children to learn to become better social detectives, social thinkers and problem solvers. Michelle has created many different characters within her Social Thinking framework and two that I most commonly used within my work with children who are struggling within social settings- children with and without diagnoses.

Super-Flex is one of the names of a superhero character who teaches kids they have a superhero inside their own brains (who looks just like they do) helping them learn about their own and others’ thoughts and behaviours, strengthening their flexible thinking, and giving them strategies to self-regulate in challenging times. We can encourage children to call on their Super-Flex and thinkable powers anytime, anyplace, to help coach them along the expected social route and avoid unexpected behaviour.

Super-Flex can give children the opportunity to have fun while learning to self-regulate and become flexible thinkers. They can learn and practice Super-Flex thinking and strategies during adult driven activities at home that can then be generalised to all social settings such as school and the wider community.

Social thinking characters can be useful to keep in a child’s room or on the fridge as a reminder of who they can be when they are finding themselves in a problem-solving situation. It helps to talk through what she/he looks like and what he/say may say if they find themselves in a difficult situation.

Michelle Garcia Winner has some wonderful resources available for parents and therapists on her website- https://www.socialthinking.com/  There are books and posters for parents, schools and therapists to use with children which can be super helpful reminders.

Written by Psychologist Dominique Dolcetta for De Silva Kids Clinic.