School Lunch Struggles and Sensory Processing in School-Based OT

When a student refuses to eat at school, it affects everything—academic performance, regulation, social interactions, and the afternoon meltdown that follows.

In this episode, @Jayson Davies sits down with Alisha Grogan, MOT, OTR/L, founder of Your Kid's Table, to talk about feeding challenges in school-based OT. Alisha brings over 20 years of experience working with extreme picky eaters and shares what school-based practitioners need to know about supporting students who struggle with lunch and snacks.

You'll learn how to identify when picky eating crosses into extreme territory, why the cafeteria environment can be so overwhelming for sensory-sensitive students, and what accommodations actually help. Alisha also clarifies the often-confusing scope question: what can school-based OTs reasonably address versus what requires outside support?

Whether you're freezing up when feeding comes up in an IEP or wondering how to support a student who won't eat at school, this conversation offers practical, realistic guidance grounded in both clinical expertise and respect for the school setting.

Listen now to learn how to make lunchtime less stressful and more successful for the students on your caseload.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this episode, learners will be able to:

1. Learners will identify the clinical indicators that distinguish extreme picky eating from typical developmental selectivity, including the 20-food threshold and sensory-behavioral red flags (Remember/Understand)
2. Learners will identify and address environmental barriers in the cafeteria that prevent students from eating at school—including sensory overwhelm from noise, lighting, smells, and peer interactions—and implement appropriate accommodations such as quiet eating spaces, noise-canceling headphones, weighted lap pads, and regulation strategies
3. Learners will identify scope of practice for feeding intervention in schools by understanding what is appropriate for school-based OT (supporting participation in lunch/snack routines, environmental modifications, family education) versus what requires outside clinic-based or medical feeding therapy (expanding food repertoire, intensive feeding protocols, home mealtime culture changes)

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