According
to The National Autistic Society there are over 500,000 people in the UK
suffering from autism. ‘Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that
affects how a person communicates with, and relates to, other people. It also
affects how they make sense of the world around them’. Autism is a ‘spectrum’
condition, meaning that it affects individuals in different ways.
The
National Autistic Society runs a project in which they organise
extra-curricular activities for autistic children to participate in. They
organised for Food Nation to run four cookery classes hosted at and funded by
Ouesburn Farm. Food Nation and Ouseburn Farm have formed a relationship whereby
both organisations work alongside one another and promote each other’s services
and resources. The aim of the cookery classes
was to provide the children with; new lifestyle skills, an opportunity to work together in order to develop their communication skills and the chance to try new foods.
The
children, aged 12-16 years, were split into two groups, a Tuesday night group
and a Thursday night group. They each received two classes. In the first class
they cooked a vegetable carbonara and in the second class they cooked
quesadillas. Each class had a maximum of 12 children who were supervised and
supported by a fantastic team from the National Autistic Society and Food
Nation volunteers.
The
recipes the children cooked were healthy, reasonably simple and the ingredients
they used were seasonal. The method was demonstrated to them at the front of
the class in stages, with a heavy emphasis on safety. After they were shown
each stage they went back to their tables and worked together in small groups under
supervision and took it in turns to perform tasks, i.e. chopping vegetables.
When
making their quesadillas they each made their own tortilla from scratch and
then filled it with their choice of filling; mozzarella, tomato, pepper,
sweetcorn and basil before cooking it themselves. During the demonstrations the
children were asked questions about the ingredients they were using and for
example, what country quesadillas come from to encourage their learning.
It
surprised me how intelligent some of the children were. There is a form of
autism known as Asperger syndrome which is considered a ‘hidden disability’. The
condition is not apparent and children who suffer from it often have above
average intelligence. I’d never experienced being around autistic children
before and it amazed me how children all suffering from the same condition display
such different personalities. Some seemed like perfectly ‘normal’ children,
others were a little over excitable, some were quite anxious and a small
minority were slightly aggressive.
From
talking to some of the children and watching them interact with one another it
was apparent that they liked cooking and enjoyed attending the classes. At the
end of the class the children could eat their food or take it home. If there
was enough time left the team from the National Autistic Society, who I can’t
express enough admiration for, took the children to see the animals outside,
something they found fascinating. The idea behind this was to hopefully spark
an interest in the venue and encourage the children to want to visit the farm
again in the future.
At the
end of their two classes at Ouesburn Farm each of the children were awarded a certificate and
given recipe cards outlining the ingredients and methods for the two recipes they had cooked.
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