Baking Time!

One of J's favourite activity was to bake. I am glad I had introduced baking to him.

Teacher's Day Gift
Baking Blueberry Cupcakes for his teachers
at his Early Intervention Centre last year

If you google the "Benefits of Baking with Preschool Children", there will be lots of articles on that! But for our child with sensory challenges especially to touch, it is good to expose them to baking. Baking alone encompasses many benefits, in regards to motor skills.

• Hone their fine motor skills - Eye-Hand coordination or even hand strengthening when pressing dough or even squeezing the icing bag.
• Stimulate the senses, feeling the texture of the different ingredients - butter, egg, flour, sugar, etc.
• Bilateral Coordination when rolling the dough, sifting the flour, etc.
• Spatial perception and Organisation Skills, when cutting cookies or sifting the flour into the bowl and not out of the bowl.
• Listening and Understanding Instructions.

Fine motor skills, Bilateral Coordination,
Spatial Awareness, Organisation skills
Listening and Understanding instructions

And there are those benefits pertaining to

• Pre-literacy skills - When we read from the recipe, the child realises those are words. Or even introduction of the different baking accessories.
• Math - Learning the numbers and fraction from the recipe, e.g. three-quarter and counting, e.g. the number of eggs we are going to put. We can even learn about Time while setting the timer - How long is the baking time?
• Social Interaction and Communication - When we talk to our child about the recipe that we are going to bake. Or he might ask questions. We can even talk about where we can sell the cakes, cookies, etc. Invoke some "What-ifs, What happens, What do you think?"
• Science - What happens when the flour, butter and sugar are mixed together?
• Responsibility - Teaching about washing hands before baking, wearing apron and cleaning up.
• Patience - Waiting for the cake to be ready.
• Safety and Danger Awareness - Showing him how hot oven is and why we should not touch the oven.

Teaching about Danger Awareness, Responsibility and Patience

And all these are even enhanced when our child does it with another friend. That will also teach them about turn taking, team work and the list goes on.

Most importantly, Having fun and bonding while baking. I love it!

Of course! There were those initial times when he might have some sensory challenges in touching those ingredients. Well! I believe in exposing him. The thing is, if he insists that he does not want to touch certain ingredients because of some sensory challenges, I would not force him and I will just do it for him. And then, tell him the goodness of how it feels. And try again the next time.

That happened initially, he did not want to touch the flour. I did not force him and I told him how soft flour feels and what flour is used for. I then invited him to try and touch it. There were the first few times when he said "No". I just left it as that and I tried again the next time we do baking. And eventually, he was willing to touch the flour.

The key thing is to be persistent, be loving and understanding and of course, not to be afraid of messiness.