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The goal of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 1 ) is to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that meets their unique needs and prepares them for further education, employment, and independent living. IDEA states that services should be provided to enable children to function in regular education classes, and in extracurricular and nonacademic settings, to enable children with disabilities to be educated with nondisabled children to the maximum extent appropriate. To meet these requirements, it is important to include functional IEP goals for students with disabilities. Functional refers to nonacademic activities, as in “routine activities of everyday living.” The purpose of the IEP is to prepare students with disabilities for life after school. Schools should understand that, for some children, teaching them how to "function" in the world is as important as teaching academic skills.
Classroom aides provide much of the day-to-day assistances for students. Without the help of aides teachers would not be able to provide for the diverse needs of a classroom full of students. However, training for an aide to provide services for eating and drinking should not be understated. Many classroom aides are Mom’s who have raised children or are raising children. It is often thought that because an aide has raised a child from a baby to an independent child who can take care of their own activities of daily living, that they are equipped with the skill set necessary to feed and provide hydration to children who are unable to undertake the tasks independently. This is a massive misconception.
This article is intended to provide information about the variety of products available to thicken foods or liquids and is intended to provide professionals and caregivers insight into the food/liquid thickening products that are available to them so that they can better evaluate which product is most appropriate for the person for whom they are providing care. (However the best method of judging any of these products is through your own experimentation.) The reason it is being included as a Mealtime Partners Newsletter topic is that on many occasions individuals with whom we interact that require a thickened diet, complain about the “taste” of the products being used. In many cases, even though the manufacturers say their products are tasteless, recipients find that the products have both an undesirable taste and texture.group's mission is to provide and encourage a greater understanding and awareness of this condition and to provide a support system. This includes providing a means for meeting other families who have the same concerns, and to provide a resource of information about this condition.
In last months Newsletter we discussed setting goals to facilitate students gaining the ability to eat independently. This month we continue the thought process by addressing the hydration needs of students who are unable to pick up a cup or glass to provide them with a drink or take a drink from a water fountain.