Exploring food can feel overwhelming for some children, particularly when sensory differences, anxiety, restricted eating or fear around food are involved.
My Discovery Diner is a visual, child-friendly ARFID food exploration resource created with autistic children and children experiencing sensory or restricted eating difficulties in mind.
Rather than making the focus simply about eating a new food, the mat encourages children to explore food through a series of smaller, manageable steps.
🍽️ Explore food through the senses
Children can explore their Discovery Food of the Week using different senses:
Look • Smell • Touch • Taste • Listen & Swallow
This gives children opportunities to notice what they experience at each stage, rather than assuming that tasting or eating has to be the first goal.
Sensory differences around the look, smell, texture and taste of food are recognised in autistic children and can also be associated with ARFID. NHS guidance for children with selective eating similarly recommends using the senses before tasting to help make unfamiliar foods more familiar.
🥣 Understand safe and familiar foods
The mat includes space for children to think about their:
Comfort Foods
Unsafe Foods
Food Chain
Discovery Food of the Week
This can help adults and children notice patterns in the foods they already feel comfortable with and consider possible steps towards food exploration.
💭 Notice feelings around food
Food isn't just about taste.
For some children, a food can bring feelings of worry, disgust, uncertainty, excitement or curiosity.
The Feelings Check gives children a simple way to notice and communicate how they feel during their food exploration.
⭐ Recognise progress
Progress doesn't always mean eating the food.
A child might:
look at a food
tolerate it being nearby
smell it
touch it
interact with it
notice something about it
taste it
or eventually eat it.
My Discovery Diner provides space to recognise those steps and record progress in a child-friendly way.
This low-pressure approach is important when supporting children with ARFID or sensory-related eating difficulties. NHS ARFID guidance advises against pressuring or forcing children to eat foods they don't feel comfortable with.
🧠 Designed with autism and ARFID in mind
My Discovery Diner was created with the experiences of autistic children and children with ARFID or restricted/sensory-based eating difficulties in mind.
Autistic children can experience significant sensory differences involving taste, smell, texture and the appearance of food, and some autistic children have very restricted food preferences. ARFID can also involve avoiding foods because of their sensory characteristics or because of fears surrounding eating.
The visual structure of the mat provides a predictable framework for exploring food without making the resource feel overly clinical.
🎨 What's included?
My Discovery Diner includes:
🍴 My Food Chain
🥣 Comfort Foods
🚫 Unsafe Foods
🍎 Discovery Food of the Week
👀 Look
👃 Smell
✋ Touch
👅 Taste
👂 Listen & Swallow
💭 Feelings Check
📈 Progress Check
⭐ Bravery Award
♻️ Reusable and ready to use
The mat is printed on 400gsm laminated card, making it durable, wipe-clean and reusable.
A dry-wipe pen is included, so children can use the mat, wipe it clean and return to it again and again.
It can be used at home or as part of work with appropriate professionals, including psychologists, therapists, dietitians, occupational therapists, schools and other services supporting children with eating or sensory difficulties.
Please note:
My Discovery Diner is an educational and supportive resource and is not a formal treatment for ARFID or any other eating disorder.
Children experiencing significant food restriction, nutritional difficulties, weight loss, distress around eating or suspected ARFID should receive appropriate assessment and support from a qualified healthcare professional. The resource can be used alongside professional support where appropriate.