Cooking and autism - what worked for us or The Batsman bakes biscuits

The Batsman has a love hate relationship with the kitchen.
He loves some of the food that comes out of it, especially the treats.
He also hates some of the food that is cooked in our kitchen, there are so many foods that offend his sensory sensitivities.
He loves that our kitchen is close by to our family room, leaving me near to him while he plays, watches tv and has his therapy sessions.
He hates the noise of some of the appliances in the kitchen, in particular the Thermomix.

I have tried so many times to interest him in cooking with me with varied but mainly limited success. His concentration span and capacity to see a cooking process through has never quite been there. The last few weeks the Batsman has been in a particularly good space. He is kicking goals in his therapy program and at kinder and he is showing more and genuine interest in engaging with new people and things in the environment around him.

I thought it might be a good time to try some simple baking again and a convenient break in the therapy timetable meant we had a little time free.

We had a lovely time and for the first time ever, the Batsman followed the biscuit making process through from start to finish and he was so excited and happy. He wore an apron, he helped melt butter, he mixed, he dolloped and he decorated. Bless.

Here are some happy snaps:

I think what made our little baking adventure successful for the Batsman and his developing skills was:

1. Preparation - we talked about cooking in the car on our way back from the supermarket so he knew roughly what was going to happen.

2. Keeping it simple - we didn't try to cook anything fancy, simple biscuit recipe, few ingredients, short processes and cooking time. I had everything laid out before we began so there was minimal waiting time for the Batsman.

3. Modelling and encouraging imitation - he was happy to wear the apron because I was wearing one and we talked about keeping the "mucky patches" (as in The Night Garden) off our clothes.

4. Independence - including tasks that he could complete without any assistance from me. He positioned every single one of those M & M's on the biscuits and was thrilled that he did it "all by myself Mummy".

5. Anticipation of eating something yummy - the build up to tasting a warm cookie was sweet but short enough for him to be very excited about what was to come. The presence of my mum was an added incentive to participate because "we are making the biscuits for Nonna".

Oh, and the biscuits were BEWDIFUL.