I am a big believer that cooking can be a creative technique for teaching our students with autism. In addition to teaching functional skills, it teaches academics, social skills, etc. But you know as well as I do, it can be a challenge with our kids. I found a good site for Kids and Cooking.You need to think safety first. Here is a Kitchen Safety poster that you can use at school or at home. It also has picture symbols so it will be great to use for our kids. Teach safety in the kitchen early in life. Don't just keep them out of the kitchen for safety reasons - teach them how to function in the kitchen.
This site has a list of videos along with the recipe that they are making. This is a great way to show the students what they will be doing in the kitchen by preteaching them or preparing them before you ever get into the kitchen environment. Now how well does that go along with our best practices in the world of autism!!
Here is a calendar to help the students plan meals, list of foods that are in season and on sale, chart with visual symbols for teaching measurement, invitation that kids can use to invite other school friends/staff to a cooking party.
Be creative and use the kitchen as an extension of the classroom - who knows you may have a budding chef in your group!
