{"id":744,"date":"2025-11-04T16:00:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T16:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/agrifood-futures\/?p=744"},"modified":"2026-05-06T16:35:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:35:43","slug":"supporting-send-families-through-food-play-and-nutrition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/agrifood-futures\/supporting-send-families-through-food-play-and-nutrition\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting SEND families through food, play and nutrition"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Dingley\u2019s Promise<\/a>,\u00a0a charity providing early years education for children with SEND, secured funding from the University of Reading\u2019s\u00a0Community Engagement Fund<\/a>\u00a0to 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.<\/p>\n

The aim of the project was to provide positive food experiences for the children and their families and in doing so improve the children\u2019s relationship with food and tolerance to a greater variety of food flavours and textures.<\/p>\n

Working with Professor Kate Harvey and Natalie Ellison from the University\u2019s\u00a0School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences, the project\u00a0included 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Food exploration activities have now been introduced at the charity\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The project also delivered a dedicated \u2018food play\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

Professor Kate Harvey, from the University of Reading, said: \u201cIt has been a pleasure to work with Dingley\u2019s Promise on how using food exploration activities can\u00a0<\/strong>increase children\u2019s familiarity with healthy food. The nursery has now introduced many creative ways to engage the children on this topic, and we\u2019re delighted that their confidence around new foods has improved. This demonstrates how effective these approaches can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funding from the University has enabled Dingley\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Hannah Goddard, Centre Manager at Dingley\u2019s Promise, said: \u201cThis project has supported us to create calm, creative food experiences that support children and their families. We\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cParents 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  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\u2019s Promise,\u00a0a charity providing…Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1187,"featured_media":745,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"coauthors":[18],"class_list":["post-744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSupporting SEND families through food, play and nutrition - Agrifood Futures<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/agrifood-futures\/supporting-send-families-through-food-play-and-nutrition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supporting SEND families through food, play and nutrition - Agrifood Futures\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  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. 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