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Cooking club geared at increasing teen¡¯s independence

Monday, November 21, 2005 -- Natalie Miller

From gooey grilled cheese sandwiches to juicy barbecued hamburgers, Durham Region teens with special needs are learning to cook their favourite meals and prepare for independent living.

The cooking group at Grandview Children¡¯s Centre in Oshawa is geared at youth typically between the ages of 14 and 17. Grandview¡¯s adolescent services are aimed at helping teens acquire the skills to live on their own or with self-directed support. Cooking is an important component of independence, says Susannah Van Damme, occupational therapist in the adolescent program at the children¡¯s treatment centre.

¡°It¡¯s one of the most basic and fundamental functions of independent living,¡± says Susannah.

¡°You need to be able to feed yourself.¡±

As an occupational therapist, Susannah¡¯s work focuses on clients¡¯ activities of daily living like dressing and bathing along with additional tasks like cooking, cleaning and budgeting. She runs the cooking program with the help of another occupational therapist and also teaches teens how to cook individually.

The group program usually accommodates six to eight teens, who have a variety of abilities, some who use wheelchairs. Grandview has a wheelchair-accessible kitchen on site for clients to use, which features a lowered countertop, lowered stovetop, a raised oven with a door that opens like a fridge does and mirrors above the sink so teens can see what they¡¯re doing.

Throughout the week-long program, teens learn about health promotion, kitchen safety and money management. The youth direct the program so it¡¯s primarily up to them what¡¯s on the menu for the four days they¡¯re actually preparing meals.

¡°We work with teenagers so we¡¯ve got to make food they want to eat or they won¡¯t come,¡± says Susannah. Past groups have made grilled cheese sandwiches, pizza, fajitas, barbecued burgers, salads and roasted corn on the cob. ¡°We try to encourage them to cut up fruit salad or vegetables,¡± says Susannah. ¡°If they plan a fairly unhealthy meal we¡¯ll talk to them about it.¡±

The youth are assigned specific kitchen tasks from setting and wiping the table to washing and chopping veggies. The teens work on the meal as a team, dine together and do the cleanup.

Susannah says the program builds on teens¡¯ cognitive and physical skills. ¡°The cognitive skills of planning in advance, sequencing a task, following a certain order of things and problem-solving¡± are exercised. She says they also stretch their range of motion by reaching for items and use their fine motor skills for a task like peeling an apple. Being an occupational therapist, Susannah is particularly interested in the cognitive benefits of the program but says the overall mandate is the same.

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Cooking is the act of preparing food for consumption. It encompasses a vast range of methods, tools and combinations of ingredients to improve the flavour and/or digestibility of food. . Constraints on success include the variability of ingredients, ambient conditions, tools and the skill of the person cooking. The diversity of cooking worldwide is a reflection of the myriad nutritional, aesthetic, agricultural, economic, cultural and religious considerations that impact upon it.

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