How We Support Healthy Eating and Grocery Shopping Skills

We make grocery shopping a fun, engaging, and educational for Benji and Giulietta, with a focus on building leadership, independence, and practical life skills.

Grocery shopping is a meaningful real world activity that provides ongoing opportunities for Benji and Giulietta to build independence, communication, and life skills. By involving them in the process from planning to checkout, we intentionally turn a routine task into a shared learning experience. Each step encourages communication, decision making, and confidence while promoting active participation and a sense of responsibility in a familiar community setting.

Before leaving for the store, we talk with Benji and Giulietta about which items are needed. The shopping list is then divided between them so each knows what they are responsible for finding. This helps build a sense of ownership while introducing simple concepts related to meal planning and shared tasks.

Benji creates his shopping list using picture cards, allowing him to communicate choices and follow a visual system as he prepares for the trip. This helps him connect the pictures he uses for communication with real items he will find in the store.

Giulietta uses her iPad to spell out or select each item on her shopping list, giving her the opportunity to practice spelling and reading while actively contributing to the planning process.

Throughout the shopping experience, Benji and Giulietta use picture cards/AAC to communicate in meaningful ways. They request items, share preferences, ask for help, and confirm choices using yes and no. Support is provided as needed, with Giulietta using her iPad to communicate phrases such as “I need help,” and Benji using his communication binder to exchange picture cards. These interactions are woven naturally into the shopping trip and encouraged at their own pace.

As they move through the store, Benji and Giulietta work on finding items from their lists by matching them to products on the shelves. Benji references his picture cards and then searches for the corresponding item, while Giulietta reads or selects the word on her list and independently identifies the correct product. This process helps them apply their communication tools in a real world setting and stay actively engaged throughout the task.

As we move through the store, we guide Benji and Giulietta through the different sections and talk about how items are grouped, such as produce, dairy, or pantry foods. We pause to point out signs, aisle numbers, and visual cues that help them understand where items belong. When Giulietta is at work at Loblaws, we use a folder that organizes foods into categories, reviewing it together to help her anticipate where items can be found and how the store is laid out before and during the shopping trip.

We are working with Giulietta on selecting the correct quantities for each item using number cards and buttons on her iPad. This activity helps her practice number recognition, counting, and understanding quantity. For example, she may select “2 peppers” or “2 tomatoes."

While at the store, we intentionally support Benji and Giulietta in interacting with the people around them, including store staff. We model and prompt respectful social exchanges such as greeting others, getting someone’s attention, asking for assistance, or communicating when a task is finished. These moments are approached naturally and at their pace, allowing them to practice functional communication in a real community settings and build confidence engaging with others outside of the home.

At the checkout, Benji and Giulietta are included in finishing the shopping trip in a hands on way. They help move items from the cart to the checkout and use their iPad or PECS binder to check that everything on their list has been found. When a self checkout is open and we do not have too many items, we support them in scanning groceries, placing items in the bagging area, and moving through the steps together. The focus is on giving them meaningful opportunities to participate and feel proud of finishing the task.