Picture based recipes for kids.

I am very excited about sharing these recipes!

If I could do every speech therapy session in the kitchen I probably would.  Children love to be involved in cooking and it is a great learning experience.  Cooking is wonderful for sequencing, retelling what you did, vocabulary building, prepositions, asking questions, describing, and it is a fun bonding experience as well.  Plus you get the bonus of eating what you made together at the end.  

When cooking is done in a way to enhance learning it is all about the process.  That 5 minute recipe can take 50 minutes, so leave yourself plenty of time, move at your child's pace, and expect some flour clean-up.  

I stumbled across a blog post which has a visual Toll house cookie recipe and I was inspired to make and share two of my most used recipes.  I love her idea of slipping these recipes into plastic page protectors and allowing your child to check off the pictures as he or she goes along.  These recipes will give your child the chance to figure out what is next, problem solve, ask questions, and respond to your requests and questions rather than only following verbal directions.  When you are done, you can have your child retell another parent or relative the steps he or she took to cook the recipes.   My little guy was so proud of himself because he followed the recipes on his own (with a lot of parent guidance of course).  

Visual Banana Bread Recipe.   Written banana bread recipe.  This recipe is a favorite in our house because you can make it all in one bowl.   We make it a lot when people are going to stop by to play because it's easy and who doesn't love banana bread?  

Visual Pancake Recipe.  Written pancake recipe.  I add vanilla and more milk to this recipe. 

We make this recipe almost every weekend, and my little guy loves to be involved in making the batter.  He was thrilled to be able to pick out the different ingredients and cross off the pictures as we went along.  While we were eating the pancakes, he told his dad about the different things we put in the bowl, referencing the pictures as he needed.  Typically I have to repeat directions and questions several times while we cook, but with the pictures to anchor him he was able to follow along more readily and be reminded of a direction with a picture.  

I hope you enjoy using these recipes with your children as much as I did!  Happy cooking!