Food For Thought

Why wouldn’t a Special Needs Child want to learn how to cook? It’s a question we should be asking. It is understandable that for the most part we might not consider this question, for the simple reason that our children are perfectly fine. They do not have “Special Needs” and our lives are less complex as a result. But what about those loving parents and caring relatives who do need to help these kids? I was approached last night by one of my friends, a member of HHM, about how to teach a child with special needs to learn how to cook. I didn’t have a clue, other than using good common sense. After I did some in-depth research, I found it was much more involved than I had anticipated. I was pleased to discover that an innovative woman by the name of Anna Moyer (founder of YSC website), was many steps ahead of me. I watched a video featuring Holly Smith, an occupational therapist. She demonstrated simple techniques and enough of them that I was impressed with the scope of her teaching video. This video is especially for the person who will be the one to teach a special needs kid.

A quick summary: cutting, measuring wet, matching utensils with clearly-written index cards, measuring dry, distinguishing hot from cold, i.e., Red = hot, Blue = cold … on to searching for ingredients and so forth. Reading left to right; Green for left ——–>> Red for right. Holly pointed out simple details to teach, motivate, encourage and allow someone with the will to learn, to work towards accomplishing their cooking goals by developing their basic cooking skills. The video is short, to-the-point and an educational eye-opener. Pre-Cooking: Teaching Children with Special Needs to Cook.

Your Special Chef. What an appropriately-named website. Once you land on their site, you can choose from their tabs and drop-down menus. The one in particular I want to point you toward (on the far right),  is the Site Map tab. Here they have many titles from which to choose, and the important part is that Anna Moyer has truly thought this through. Here they talk about showing these kids to recognize the utensils, the elements, practice before ever attempting actually to cook, so the child can feel prepared. They explain why it is fundamentally liberating to teach independence and develop their child’s most basic cooking skills. This includes exposing new cooks to textures, colors and smells. Teaching them to cook foods they might not wish to eat, but that they can share and serve others. They explain the importance of building upper-body strength and fine-tuning of motor skills. They believe that with practice these children will be able to understand basic cooking practices. They can be motivated to cook, and to try new recipes later on, enhancing a feeling of self-worth and pride in knowing they can be a chef if they are willing to try.

Why Teach Someone Cooking Skills?

“Working on cooking skills helps people to develop independence. In many cases, individuals with special needs have to live in 24-hour care environments,

but if they were able to make themselves a simple meal or snack they may be able to live in a less restrictive environment”.

Link for their Youtube site.