Food Investigator Placemat | Sensory Food Exploration & Communication

Explore food through curiosity, not pressure, with a visual placemat that helps children discover and communicate their unique sensory preferences.

Food is about so much more than taste. Texture, colour, appearance and other sensory characteristics can all influence how someone experiences a particular food.

The Food Investigator Placemat by The Play Way encourages children to become curious investigators of their own food experiences. Using engaging visuals and interactive prompts, it provides a way to notice, explore and describe different food characteristics, while discovering what feels comfortable, unfamiliar or unpleasant.

Rather than focusing on how much a child eats or whether they'll try something new, the placemat shifts attention towards exploration, understanding and communication.

Children can use it to express their likes, dislikes and observations about food, helping parents and carers better understand their individual sensory preferences.

For children who experience food-related sensory sensitivities, including those with ARFID or selective eating patterns, the placemat may offer a useful starting point for food-related conversations and exploration, without making eating the goal.

Why we chose it

• Sensory-focused exploration: Encourages children to notice characteristics such as texture, colour and taste

• Supports communication: Provides visual prompts to help children express their food preferences and experiences

• Pressure-free approach: Can be used without expecting a child to taste, eat or enjoy a particular food

• Builds self-understanding: Helps children recognise patterns in what they like, dislike or find unfamiliar

• Encourages participation: Gives children an active role in exploring and discussing food

• Supports individual preferences: Makes space for different sensory responses without labelling them as right or wrong

• Flexible use: Can be incorporated into food exploration activities or everyday mealtime conversations

• Playful format: Introduces curiosity and observation through a child-friendly investigator theme

When might the Food Investigator Placemat be useful?

The Food Investigator Placemat may be helpful for children who:

• Have strong preferences around food textures, colours or tastes

• Find it difficult to explain what they like or dislike about particular foods

• Feel uncertain or uncomfortable around unfamiliar foods

• Enjoy investigating, comparing or categorising different things

• Benefit from visual prompts when communicating their experiences

• Are exploring their individual sensory preferences

• Experience food-related anxiety or sensory sensitivities

It may also be a useful resource for parents, carers, educators and feeding professionals who want to better understand a child's experience of food.

Food exploration doesn't have to mean eating

For some children, simply looking at an unfamiliar food is a meaningful form of exploration. Others may feel comfortable describing its colour, comparing it with familiar foods or discussing what they notice.

Tasting or eating does not need to be the goal of every food-related activity.

The placemat can be introduced gradually, with children choosing how much they want to participate.

A child might explore a familiar favourite, investigate a food they already dislike, or observe something new without touching or tasting it.

Their responses are information about their sensory experience, not answers that need correcting.

A supportive approach to food sensitivities and ARFID

Children with sensory-based feeding difficulties or Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) may experience food in ways that aren't immediately obvious to others.

A texture that feels comfortable to one child may be overwhelming to another. Appearance, taste and other sensory characteristics can also influence whether a food feels approachable.

The Food Investigator Placemat provides an opportunity to listen to the child's perspective, recognise their preferences and support communication around food.

It is not a treatment for ARFID or a substitute for individualised feeding support. Instead, it can be used as a complementary exploration and communication resource, where appropriate for the child.

Product details

• Product: Food Investigator Placemat

• Brand: The Play Way

• Format: Interactive placemat with visual prompts

• Focus: Food exploration, sensory preferences and communication

• Explores: Food characteristics including textures, colours and tastes

• Recommended age: 1+ years

• Use: Child-led food exploration with age-appropriate adult support

Care & safety

Use with appropriate adult supervision, particularly for younger children.

Follow the manufacturer's care instructions for cleaning and handling.

Food exploration should be adapted to each child's age, developmental abilities, sensory preferences and individual needs.

Never pressure a child to touch, taste or eat a food as part of the activity. Respect signs of discomfort and allow children to stop or decline participation.

For children with significant feeding difficulties, ARFID or medical concerns affecting eating, seek guidance from an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.

ND-affirming note

Food preferences and sensory differences deserve understanding, not judgement.

A child who avoids a particular texture, colour or taste may be responding to a genuinely uncomfortable sensory experience.

The aim of food exploration isn't to convince children that their preferences are wrong. It's to give them opportunities to understand their experiences, communicate their needs and make choices about their own participation.

Curiosity can be encouraged. Comfort and consent should always come first.