Blog #466: Why My Blog Post About Silent Lunches Has Gotten Popular?
- Jeffrey Snyder
- Sep 3, 2024
- 3 min read
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As the new school year begins, I wanted to touch base about a particular blog post from the past that has really gotten popular with some of my readers. If you recall way back in Blog #239, I talked about Silent Lunches and why they are bothersome to neurodivergent students and ever since then, I feel that many of you have really connected to it in more ways than one.
For a refresher, the only time that I had experienced silent lunches was in Middle School and they were only enforced if the cafeteria was being too loud or if we were misbehaving during the lunch period. To combat this, my classmates and I would have lunch with my middle school mentor twice a week.
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Now taking a look back at this blog myself, I feel that Silent Lunches are becoming more and more controversial amongst students and parents, but more so for neurodivergent students. The last thing any neurodivergent or neurotypical student want is to be denied the chance to socialize with their friends outside the classroom. Plus, who would want a teacher or administrator screaming in their face for trying to communicate when they are not supposed to?
However, we need to look at this from a different perspective, particularly those of the teachers and administrators themselves. The idea of a silent lunch is for two reasons:
To teach the student that you cannot talk in a loud voice while in a public setting
To keep students safe should the unthinkable happen
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But to the parents and the students, silent lunches are tormenting and also denies the students a chance to socialize outside of the classroom. We all have something we want to say to one another, but the idea of being silenced just because we were loud or something can do more harm than good, particularly for neurodivergent students. No student ever wants to be screamed at or reprimanded when all they want to do is eat and build connections.
Of course, being as someone who lived through silent lunches and how sensory provoking they were to me, I have made it my mission to try and convince schools to implement alternative lunchroom settings for neurodivergent and sensory friendly students. To this end, I created a training called “How to Create Alternative Lunchroom Settings for Special Education/Sensory Friendly Students?”
The idea for this presentation is to teach the importance of alternative lunchroom settings particularly for students who might be forced into a social situation that they aren’t comfortable in. When it comes to lunch, some students will want to eat in peace and be in a social setting that is not sensory overloading with reprimanding teachers and administrators along with loud talking students.
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Of course, the more that Blog #239 becomes popular, the more that people want to learn more and if you want me to offer you this particular training, I strongly encourage you to reach out to me today because the more awareness about creating alternative lunchroom settings for sensory friendly students, the better.
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Catch you all later!!
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