By: Yvonne Asher, Ph.D.
NESCA Pediatric Neuropsychologist
Cooking Thanksgiving dinner usually takes me about 8 hours by myself. With help, it’s closer to 12. But my kids LOVE to help. They always want to mix and pour and measure and dump ingredients hour after hour, standing beside me on a wobbly kitchen chair. I’ll leave the question of safety – you know your child best in that respect – except to say that the heavily marketed “Montessori style” kitchen tools are pretty great. Instead, I want to talk about the neurocognitive benefits of helping with cooking. There are other, wonderful benefits – bonding, sharing memories and family stories, creating traditions – but those probably do not require a neuropsychologist to opine on.
First and foremost, cooking is science and math. Actually, a ton of math. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, and more. Having company? We probably need to double our usual brownie recipe. Only Aunt Sue and Jimmy like cranberry sauce? Let’s halve that one. We need one and a half cups of flour for this pie crust, but only the one-quarter cup measure is clean. How many quarter-cups will we need? For science, we have states of matter, heat transfer, and chemical reactions. Why do carrots turn green in carrot cake? How do baking soda and vinegar get a chocolate cake to rise? What makes those dinner rolls so fluffy? The age of your child is (almost) irrelevant – younger children are intrigued by more basic concepts, and older ones can understand more complex and nuanced ideas. When I was a preschool teacher (long before my current career), I can still remember the wide eyes of my barely 3-year-old pupils when watching heavy cream turn into butter, yeasted dough turn into bread, and disparate ingredients turn into delicious cookies.
There is also a tremendous amount of executive functioning in cooking and food preparation. As anyone who has hosted a meal or, frankly, just tried to get dinner on the table before 9pm, will know, planning is crucial. Holding information in mind (working memory), organizing, setting smaller goals in the service of larger ones, tracking progress through multiple tasks, and checking one’s work are all vital to ending up with a special meal (did you remember to put the butter in the mashed potatoes???). If anyone in your crowd has particular eating requirements (babies learning solids, allergies, vegan/gluten-free diets, etc.), the executive functioning demands are ratcheted up by a lot. And, if you are the kind of person who sets an elaborate table with décor and such (my kids are lucky if I remember to grab a tablecloth), you have even more planning, organizing, and task management to do.
Last, but most certainly not least, learning to plan menus, shop, prepare food, cook, and bake are phenomenal life skills. Life skills are vital for everyone, but especially for individuals with developmental disabilities. Strong, confident mastery of life skills is critical for adolescents and young adults to achieve independence. I’m still patiently awaiting the day that one of my kids can cook dinner all by themselves, but I will be immeasurably pleased and proud when they do.
It is a commitment to have kids help in the kitchen. They make unbelievable messes (I never knew how many places powdered sugar could end up), ruin dishes with expensive ingredients, and most certainly introduce germs into food (even with the best of handwashing practices and “DON’T TOUCH YOUR FACE” admonishments). But this is the space between ideal and real that we can inhabit in service of teaching. Yes, it will take longer. Yes, things you envisioned may absolutely not happen (or not happen the way you hoped). Yes, it will be a crazy amount of work for you. Yes, you may need an extra grown up to actually help while your child “helps.” (You can, of course, designate certain dishes or elements of dishes as appropriate for “help” and others “just for grownups.”) But this is an incredible opportunity to help your kids learn math, science, executive functioning, and life skills in ways that are meaningful, filled with love, and built in to the fabric of their lives.
About the Author
Dr. Yvonne M. Asher enjoys working with a wide range of children and teens, including those with autism spectrum disorder, developmental 
delays, learning disabilities, attention difficulties and executive functioning challenges. She often works with children whose complex profiles are not easily captured by a single label or diagnosis. She particularly enjoys working with young children and helping parents through their “first touch” with mental health care or developmental concerns.
Dr. Asher’s approach to assessment is gentle and supportive, and recognizes the importance of building rapport and trust. When working with young children, Dr. Asher incorporates play and “games” that allow children to complete standardized assessments in a fun and engaging environment.
Dr. Asher has extensive experience working in public, charter and religious schools, both as a classroom teacher and psychologist. She holds a master’s degree in education and continues to love working with educators. As a psychologist working in public schools, she gained invaluable experience with the IEP process from start to finish. She incorporates both her educational and psychological training when formulating recommendations to school teams.
Dr. Asher attended Swarthmore College and the Jewish Theological Seminary. She completed her doctoral degree at Suffolk University, where her dissertation looked at the impact of starting middle school on children’s social and emotional wellbeing. After graduating, she completed an intensive fellowship at the MGH Lurie Center for Autism, where she worked with a wide range of children, adolescents and young adults with autism and related disorders.
NESCA is a pediatric neuropsychology and related services practice with offices in Newton, Plainville, and Hingham, Massachusetts; Londonderry, New Hampshire; Coral Gables, Florida; and staff in the greater Burlington, Vermont region, serving clients from infancy through young adulthood and their families. For more information, please email info@nesca-newton.com or call 617-658-9800.
To book an appointment with a NESCA clinician, please complete our Intake Form today. For more information about NESCA, please email info@nesca-newton.com or call 617-658-9800.
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