For
special needs kids, dining out is a functional activity that requires a little
practice ahead of time. The dining out experience builds vocabulary such as
restaurant, menu, waiter/waitress, check, etc. In addition, students can build
semantic relations with their new words as they learn to “sit at the table,”
“study the menu,” “place an order,” and “pay the check” while they learn appropriate
behavior for eating out.
In
this dining out exercise students were shown a series of specific photographs
(via an iPad) of a individuals at a restaurant. The pictures modeled actions
such as, being seated at a table, reading a menu, placing an order, eating, and
paying the check.
Students were then invited to “eat out” at
“Jose’s Mexican CafĂ©” where they were welcomed by a hostess who seated them at
a table. The table “set-up” included salt, pepper (I put tape over the holes),
sugar packets and holder, napkin, plastic knife and fork, and a “basket of
chips” made from an old manila folder cut into triangles and bent to resemble
tortilla chips. Students were approached by a “waitress” who gave them a simple
menu from which they chose a food item and beverage. The waitress brought cups
(empty) as their drinks and “tacos” from the Melissa and Doug Taco &
Burrito set. At the end of their pretend meal students were given a “check” secured
from a restaurant ticket book and some fake money to pay it. The menu was
generated using clip art and product images in a simple Word document.
Submitted by Lamar University
Speech-Language Pathology graduate clinicians Wendy Lanier and Jenna Lappi.