Cooking with Autism

From the Autism Awareness Center:

Processing information is difficult for people with ASD so recipes need to be broken down into manageable parts:

• First, list the utensils and appliances needed.
• Then list the ingredients in their full form, not the way they need to be put into the recipe (ex. rather than say diced, peeled, sliced etc., say one carrot, one apple etc.)
• Now list the instructions and break them down into manageable steps. Yes – there may be 3 pages for a recipe, but there is also the chance for cooking independence which is the goal.

How do you handle food aversions and other eating challenges? Find something similar to something they already like. If a child likes spice cake then try carrot cake. Often an aversion is not to the taste of the food itself but to some other aspect such as presentation or texture. I love eggs but will not eat them poached or soft-boiled because I hate the texture of a soft yolk. I do enjoy them scrambled. (Read more.)