Occupational Therapy Fun in the Kitchen

Our Occupational Therapy team lists some reasons why the kitchen is a great place to work on occupational therapy related skills for your child or young adult. View this email in your browser Occupational Therapy Fun in the Kitchen     A great place to work on occupational therapy related skills is in the kitchen! The kitchen is a sensory and social environment that lends itself to so many opportunities to develop and support many of the skills that your child or young adult is working on in therapy. Sensory Processing The kitchen allows you to present, model, and explore various tactile sensations. There is the opportunity to explore different textures, temperatures, and shapes. If direct touching is a little overwhelming, that's okay! You can present items in Ziplock bags to mix/knead, use long handled utensils, use gloves, or even model and talk through your experience while interacting with different ingredients. Tactile exploration in the kitchen doesn't only pertain to foods! Talk about textures on different utensils, pots/pans, cups/bowls, or foil/parchment paper. There are also lots of opportunities for auditory exploration in the kitchen! You have the opportunity to explore the different sounds that appliances make or can add a little background music to your cooking fun. If your child has some difficulty with unexpected sounds, give them warning that the input will begin or give them control and teach them how to start the appliance. There are also opportunities for visual exploration! See how things changes when they are mixed and practice scanning and finding different ingredients/materials in the kitchen. Create a visual to simplify the recipe. This doesn't have to be fancy! Simple putting the items you need in order on the counter with sticky notes next to each item, numbering the sequence is a way to modify a recipe! There is also the opportunity to explore all of the different smells that come with cooking! Fine Motor Skills There are also so many opportunities to support fine motor skill development. You can work on opening various packages and containers, cutting food items with a knife, measuring ingredients, pinching powdered ingredients, pouring/sprinkling seasoning from jars, picking up food items with tongs, and you could practice using a pincer grasp to pick up smaller ingredients! Executive Functioning Kitchen skills allow for so many opportunities to practice executive functioning! Practice time management skills and discuss how long it takes to prepare and cook different items. Practice setting different timers and listening out for them to check on your food. You can work on sequencing and figuring out how to best prioritize different components of the task. You can work on natural problem-solving skills (oh no! I poured all my ingredients in this small bowl and now I have no room to stir it!). You can work on setting up/cleaning up a workspace and how to make it most efficient. This is another great way you can incorporate a "scavenger hunt" and problem solve where different ingredients/items may be found in the kitchen. Milestones What is expected in the kitchen for my child? Take a look at some of the following milestones to have an idea of what is usually expected for various age ranges. Toddlers: Getting your toddlers in the kitchen is a great way to teach them a variety of motor skills and to get them learning about the world around them. Toddlers can help with washing fruits/vegetables, pouring with help, stirring/mixing ingredients, sorting ingredients, scooping into measuring cups/bowls, using cookie cutters, locating utensils/bowls/plates, draining foods, and finding items in the pantry of refrigerator. Pre-school: Pre-school age kids can help with cutting softer ingredients (there are great children's safety knives that you can purchase to keep your little ones safe), pouring ingredients with help, mixing/stirring ingredients, spreading ingredients with a safety knife, cracking eggs, making simple "cold" meal prep items like a sandwich, kneading and mashing, preparing vegetables by tearing/ripping, and finding items in the grocery store. Early Elementary: Our early elementary kids can help with cutting packages and ingredients with scissors, cutting ingredients with more resistance with a safety knife, measuring with measuring cups/spoons, preparing trays for cooking, grating things like cheese, practice using simple appliances with help, finding a recipe in a book, following a simple recipe with help, and transferring/carrying food items without dropping. Late Elementary/Early Middle School: These kids can help with the meal planning process, are able to follow a simple recipe more independently, can use more complex kitchen tools and appliances (with supervision), locate ingredients, whisking ingredients, helping create a shopping list, and can begin to explore "hot" food preparation with adult supervision/assistance. Teens: Teens are able to work on following more complex recipes, safe handling and cutting of meats, chopping ingredients, using stove/oven (provide supervision), using kitchen appliances, and demonstrating safety when managing hot items/foods.       CONTACT US Share Tweet Forward Website Facebook Copyright © 2025 Cutting Edge Pediatric Therapy, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website or offline form Our mailing address is: Cutting Edge Pediatric Therapy 900 Junction Drive Allen, TX 75013 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? 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