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<P>Hi Emily,</P>
<P>It is not your responsibility as a TVI to teach students to eat. However you probably should to further her success. Tell the parent politely she should assist her child too. Explain that all is needed is some hand over hand guidance. My reaction is something sounds very very wrong. </P>
<P>Why is an eleven year old not eating with a fork? Is she multiply impaired? Even cognitively delayed and intelectually (retarded) impaired children eat with forks. Unless there is a severe disability why is she not doing this? The parents have failed terribily in waiting til a child is 11 to address eating. Shame, Shame! Angel has a good point. Parents need to take more initative and not baby their children unless they are babies. </P>
<P>That being said, I am surprised the OT does not have a hand in teaching this too. This requires fine motor coordination. I am assuming the 11 year old child was seeing the OT to address motor deficits. Can you tell us more such as what the child's goals were in OT? </P>
<P>I find it hard to believe the only concern of the mom was the eating issue. If she had not been eating correctly, I think there were likely other problems.</P>
<P>So although it is certainly the parent's responsibility, this IMO falls into OT as well. I think I learned eating skills at home and it was reinforced by teachers and staff at school.</P>
<P> </P>
<P>Ashley<BR><BR><BR></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid">-----Original Message----- <BR>From: "Gibbs, Emily" <EGIBBS@BRAZOSPORTISD.NET><BR>Sent: Dec 15, 2008 3:35 PM <BR>To: aernet@lists.aerbvi.org, Professionals in Blindness Education Division List <PIBE-DIVISION@NFBNET.ORG><BR>Subject: [AERNet] Eating with a Fork <BR><BR><ZZZHTML><ZZZHEAD><ZZZMETA content="text/html; charset=us-ascii" http-equiv="Content-Type"><ZZZMETA content="Microsoft Word 10 (filtered)" name="Generator">
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<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I was just contacted by the OT in my school district and she is apparently dismissing one of my blind students from service. She had just discussed this with the parent and the parent’s only concern was the fact that this 11year old can not eat with a fork. The OT wanted to know if I would be willing to do a home visit in order to help them teach this student to eat with a fork at home. </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">What would you do in this situation? </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoAutoSig><FONT face=Braille color=blue size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Braille">,Emily ,Gibbs</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoAutoSig><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=blue size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">Emily L Gibbs M.Ed. NCLB</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoAutoSig><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=blue size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">Teacher of Blind Students</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoAutoSig><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=blue size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">586.489.6017</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoAutoSig><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=blue size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">979.730.7155 x11594</SPAN></FONT></P>
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