Mom hails beneficial impact of cooking for her autistic son

A Jewish mother of four has published a cookbook aimed at special needs children, after discovering cooking had a positive, therapeutic-like effect cooking had on her own special needs children.

The London-born Deborah French, who now lives in Israel, has a son on the autistic spectrum, a daughter with Down’s syndrome, and two young twins. She told the Daily Mail that she made the discovery when grappling with the task of promoting healthy eating for her children.

According to French, encouraging healthy food choices is often particularly hard for parents of special needs children or young adults, since so much of parents’ time is consumed with teaching them how to communicate and interact with the world around them. In addition, she said, these children are often teased, bullied or misunderstood by their peers, causing frustration, overeating and comfort binging.

After her now 12-year-old son Henry was diagnosed with autism as a toddler, specialists warned the family that his attention span would be limited to five minutes. However, when Henry was four, French said she decided to bake cookies and enlisted her son’s help, and was astonished to realized he was attentive, interested and careful with his his task of rolling out cookies.

“His cookie shapes were immaculate. I barely made any cookies that afternoon; I simply watched Henry in amazement,” she told the UK-based news website. “It was clear that Henry loved being in the kitchen; it calmed him, channeled his energy and gave him a wonderful sense of achievement.”

She added: “Every evaluation we had received in his four years had stated that Henry was unable to concentrate for longer than five minutes on any given task. As a tray of freshly baked cookies came out of the oven, I realized that in the kitchen Henry’s concentration and fine motor skills were excellent.”

While her 11-year-old daughter Amariah has difficulty communicating verbally, French says she also enjoys spending time in the kitchen, and joins in from time to time.

Since then, the Frenches have used cooking as a way to develop motor skills and enjoy time together as a family.

French also runs cooking classes to boost self-confidence and develop the individuality and creativity of special needs children and young adults.

The Cookbook for Children with Special Needs features recipes and drawings explaining every step in the recipe in great detail — from how to hold a knife to how to use your hands to mix batter.

“My hope is that these recipes help other families find inspiration in the kitchen,” she says, “just as they have done for mine.”