Inclusion: In the mix

Disabled children can gain just as much as anyone from preparing food, and so can children with challenging behaviour, writes Fiona Hamilton-Fairley

It is a sad fact that owing to poor facilities, fears for health and safety and a general lack of confidence, disabled children are rarely given the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in the kitchen, preparing and cooking delicious food. But I am particularly passionate about giving such children the chance to enjoy cookery. All children surely have the same right to learn alongside their peers, and cookery is an essential life skill. Everyone benefits from being involved in it, no matter how small or great their needs may be.

At the Kids Cookery School (KCS) in Acton, west London, which I run, 27 per cent of the children in our teaching schedules have special needs. The children's disabilities range from autism to Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, dyspraxia, dyslexia, Down's syndrome and specific learning difficulties, as well as children with physical, emotional and behavioural difficulties.

One of our kitchen units in our main teaching kitchen is specially designed. It can elevate up and down and accommodate any size of wheelchair, allowing all our students to become involved in food preparation, cooking and, of course, the washing up. The whole school is ramped and wheelchair-friendly.

The Archie Club

One of my favourite clubs at KCS is the Archie Club. It caters for disabled children during the school holidays and at half-term. Each class consists of approximately eight children, accompanied by their carers. The children's impairments lie in all areas, including physical, mental and specific learning disabilities. Many of the students have no speech whatsoever. But as cooking is essentially practical, the teachers can demonstrate to the students how to go about the cookery task. If some of the steps are not achievable, there are always the teachers' and carers' helping hands.

For the Archie Club children, the rewards of the cookery sessions are immediate and immense. Nobody asks for gourmet meals. But simply the experience of creating something that tastes and smells wonderful is enough to make the children's and the carers' day. Not only do they learn to cook, but they also learn about their own senses through a fun quiz. They enjoy the experience of smelling, touching, feeling and tasting new and exciting fruits and vegetables.

The experience is unprecedented for most Archie Club kids, and its benefits are enormous.

The children's carers are, of course, crucial in connecting with the Archie Club children. They have enormous skill and patience when it comes to dealing with the children on a daily basis. But during the KCS cookery sessions, we like the carers to try to sit back and let the students do things on their own. Of course, this is not always possible, given the children's enormous difficulties, but many of the students surprise the carers as well as themselves with what they can achieve. Some of the more able children will go on and one day care for themselves, so acquiring this vital life skill will hold them in good stead for many years to come.

Classes like the Archie Club are demanding and hard work. But it is also hugely rewarding to see some of the Club's children proudly present their dishes of the day at the end of each class. And when they return the following holiday, you can see their excitement as they tackle their new culinary challenges.

Challenging behaviour

Many children today find it difficult to concentrate and behave in a socially acceptable and appropriate manner. This is often mis-read and they may become labelled as 'just naughty'. For many of these children, bad behaviour is part of their problem. The more trouble they get into, the more challenging they become. These children often have problems with reading, writing and spelling but tend to be good at practical subjects. Their bad behaviour is attention-seeking.

These children are often very talented when it comes to practical skills and they enjoy the chance to succeed and show their peers that they are good at a subject. During a cookery session you can channel their additional energy into a positive strength by challenging their minds and bodies. By giving them lots of activities to do - stirring, mixing, whisking, rolling and so on - their thoughts become absorbed by the tasks at hand and they have little time or energy to present challenging behaviour. We work with many children who have been excluded from school and we find that once they are in our stimulating environment, they become energised and quite manageable. The dishes they create are delicious as well as imaginative.

Successful cookery sessions

When doing cookery with disabled children, it is a good idea to keep the session quite short and make the groups as small as possible. Lots of praise and encouragement while the children are doing the practical tasks will help them to settle, enjoy the class and maintain a positive attitude. The secret of success is to keep everything simple and straightforward.

All children love to help and feel important in the kitchen, so try to make your activity something special as well as practical. That way the children can work and practise the skill over and over again. Whatever you do, make it fun and stress-free for everyone.

Safe and simple

• Don't use sharp knives, use round-ended knives.
  
  
• Use simple equipment which is easy to use and not too fiddly.
  
  
• Keep away from ovens and hobs; for the first few times, make something that you do not have to cook, until you get to know the child and feel happy and safe with their abilities.
  
  
• Use recipes that involve lots of mixing, stirring and whisking and so on.
  
  
• Don't use raw meat - children might put it into their mouths, and they may well be unaware of the potential dangers.
  
  
• Allow children to make a mess - this is fun and it breaks down so many barriers.
  
  
• Don't dictate how the finished product should look. Let children use their imaginative, creative side - after all, it is their food and their masterpiece.

Learning opportunities

• Practise fine motor skills with some fresh herbs, allowing children to tear the herbs into small pieces with their fingers, while they smell and taste them. Hard-boil some eggs for peeling with the fingers and mash the egg for sandwiches (egg and cress.)
  
  
• Make sandwiches that involve spreading and cutting. To make a change, you could use some shaped biscuit cutters to cut out pieces of bread.
  
  
• Show children the difference between raw, soft and cooked eggs, and observe the process of change. Show them raw and cooked pasta, and the different shapes and sizes of pasta available.
  
  
• Make a quiz about different fruit and vegetables and find out where they grow - below, on top or above the ground?

Once you are really confident with your cookery pupils you can start to introduce some of the standard skills:

• Making bread and pizzas from scratch including making your own dough.
• Pastry making, use cutters, shapes, biscuits and so on.
• Pasta and rice salads.