1. Great idea! but expect the unexpected preschool age anything could happen.
2. My son loves goey stuff but will lick fingers, wipe on self, wipe on table, wipe on you. He loves a bowl of soapy water to wash hands in but this may not suit all. If there is a sink to wash hands make sure kids can reach it.
3. An individual aide would be perfect if possible as would someone else's suggestion of a visual instruction plan, although he still may not follow steps and want to jump ahead or get stuck on a step.
4. My son wouldn't want to change stations, once or twice you can get away with 3 times tends to be a problem.
5. Yes my son loves cooking.
6. kids getting stuck at certain stages... eg decorating gingerbread men he does fingers toes buttons ears eyes hair and probably would keep going on details forever, if you used choc buds my son would eat handfuls and be hard to stop from doing this. He also has a thing about eggs because he has a thing about dinosaurs who come out of eggs, he can be a little hard to handle amoungst raw eggs.
7. Divide ingredients before the class. Otherwise some will want more than they get and you may lose attention from them before you have even started. Have an alternate activity ready for those who finish quicky or refuse to participate. Definately find out about any triggers you can before hand and ways to deal with. Find out who will deal with a child who freaks out, if it's you make sure everyone else knows what to do so you don't lose control of whole group. Finally bring your sense of humour and a camera. The kids will love the pictures to look at after.
Good luck

thank you guys so much. I have been searching for parent's to talk to for a while now and this is perfect. I'm thinking about preschool kids because theres a preschool in my town just for Autistic kids or I could try some age range in elementry school. I was thinking of doing 6 different stations and have aides for the kids, they may be teenagers but I would of course teach them what I know and have them know how to act. I was also thinking of giving the participants parents surveys a few weeks ahead of time asking questions about their childs needs. Thanks again.

1. Yes. But some kids have what is called "sensory issues." That means, some kids may not like touching certain substances. I know this example doesn't have to do with cooking, but my child doesn't like to step on dirt and my friend's child will not step on grass (we're talking barefoot).

2. No. I think my child would be very distressed by gloves. I don't even think I could get gloves on him. He would fuss and howl until the gloves were off, most likely. In any case, my son likes sticky gooey stuff, although he does tend to use his shirt and hair as towel and napkin.

3. If by partner you mean another child or peer with autism/Asperger, then no. That probably wouldn't work out. If by partner you mean an aide or volunteer or most likely the child's parent, then yes, that generally works out very well unless the person with autism is very high functioning/independent and didn't really need assistance. An aide that accompanies a special needs child at school is often called a "shadow aide." It's a very common practice.

4. Some things that might be too overwhelming for the kids might be a lot of loud noise or background noise, too many busy and bright colors/patterns, flickering and buzzing florescent lighting, being in a new and unfamiliar environment, having their routine disrupted by your event, being distracted by something they perceive as more interesting (like a flag or a water fountain they want to play around in), and wanting to eat the ingredients of a cooking demonstration before they are cooked and/or being visibly/audibly distressed by being forced to prepare ingredients one way when they might rather be spreading the ingredients over the surface of a desk.

5. I think these kids would actually want to do this, if you take care to set up the demonstration in a setting they are comfortable with.

6. Getting and keeping the kids interested. Dealing with their unexpected reactions.

7. It might help to locate a group of your targeted population and then ask their teacher/therapist/parents for tips specific to each individual child. Maybe you could arrange to do your project during the normal classroom time of a special needs class so that the children's schedules are not disrupted. What I mean is, find out when the kids normally do a craft or art time and see if you can come in and do a ten or 15 minute cooking project. They will be likely to have all of the support staff that they normally need (aides, shadow aides) already in place.

1) Yes, I think it is a very good idea. Cooking is a life skill that everyone should learn. However, you'll have to consider each of the participants on an individual basis and get away from the generalized assumptions that form the basis of your remaining questions. You have also not indicated the ages of the children, the overall number you expect to have, or the number of steps/stations you are thinking about, which makes it difficult, for example, to give an answer to question 4.

2) Some kids with autism don't like getting their hands dirty and some get a sensory charge out of fondling gooey things - so you'll need to be prepared for both extremes. Some also will wear gloves, but others will object strenuously to putting on gloves (this may even trigger a tantrum for some). My son never liked getting his hands dirty, but he also doesn't like to wear gloves. For him, a wet cloth "at the ready" for cleaning his hands was a better solution than gloves. Some kids, though, don't like the feel of wet cloth.

3) Supervising a number of them as a collective group in a kitchen environment is going to be a tough thing for just one instructor. Experienced partners for each child, if possible, are probably your best bet. If not, go with 2 children to one experienced partner. Of course, the "right" ratio would ideally depend on the ages and communicative abilities of each of the participants.

4) See #1.

5) Some may want to do it, but may not give you the "enthusiastic feedback" that you're looking for as an indicator that they want to do it. Some may not want to do it at all. If possible, having an alternative available for those you may choose not to participate would be ideal. How possible is this, of course, depends on how many assistants you have available to you.

6 & 7) The number of steps is an important consideration, but each child may be at a different level in this regard. You may want to inquire about this with each child's parents or therapists beforehand. If you don't know how many steps each child can handle, best to keep the whole exercise as simple as possible.

Many ASD children do better with visual materials, so drawing up picture-based charts of the steps is important. For some, additional modifications to these charts might be needed to "keep them flowing" (i.e. arrows from one step to the next to serve as a visual cue to move onto the next step). Without this, some children will stop and stay at the first step or at a step farther along if they encounter something they don't understand right off.

Some of them may also need to be "pre-taught" skills and be prepared for the situation in advance (e.g. by going though the visual instruction boards privately in advance). Many children with ASDs do not do well when they are thrust into situations they are not prepared for, but do very well if they are "expecting" events to "go down" in a particular way.

Hope this helps,
Perz