26 Jul Advantages of Holiday Baking with Your Autistic Child

Holiday baking with your autistic child is loads of fun and incredibly therapeutic. It offers numerous developmental benefits and helps in learning various new skills. Let’s look at some of the benefits baking can have:

1. Measurement skills – For older children, baking is a great way to learn about quantities and weight measurement.
2. Phonics activity – Reading recipes together is a fun way to practice phonics.
3. Motor skills – For younger children, mixing and stirring help build muscle strength, while pouring and measuring develop fine motor skills.
4. Sequencing and comprehension – Baking teaches autistic children to follow step-by-step instructions, enhancing sequencing and comprehension skills.
5. Sensory integration – Holiday baking provides a great tactile experience, beneficial for sensory integration.
6. Patience and self-regulation – The process of being in the kitchen requires patience and self-regulation, offering valuable teaching moments.
7. Safety lessons – Formal lessons can include sorting “dangerous” and “non-dangerous” kitchen utensils or learning about kitchen safety.
8. Creativity – With creativity, baking can incorporate an artistic component, allowing children to experiment with different shapes and decorations.
9. Color mixing – Mixing different colors to create new icing colors can be a fun and educational activity.
10. Turn-taking and sensory exploration – Children learn to wait their turn, identify different tastes, and experience various textures.

As you can see, the learning opportunities are truly endless and can be easily adapted to be more academic or less academic to suit the child’s individual educational needs.