Cooking Therapy
Flour flying, sticky dough on their tiny fingers and the almost-comical strategically placed sprinkles; these are all joys of baking with kids. It is even more special when the purpose for baking goes beyond learning to make a batch of cookies to actually enabling the kids to be able to once again have use of their hands.
This is what is being done at ALYN Hospital — the leading rehabilitative pediatric hospital in the Middle East. ALYN prides itself on the mission of being able to help treat any child, regardless of race, religion or ethnicity — a rarity in this war-torn region. The doctors and specialists at ALYN are constantly evolving effective, creative and fun ways to rehabilitate the children – such as their breakthrough with cooking therapy.
The act of creating these pastries is not only fun for the children, but targets the muscles and motor functions they so desperately need to grow as independent adults. In this photo, Marwa, a chef superstar at ALYN, who is slowly regaining the use of her body with every cookie, cake and pie she makes. The ParentLife team thought cooking therapy was a very unique concept and we wanted to share it with you. Our team is committed to providing help for parents of children with special needs. We do our best to cover at least one special needs topic in each issue of ParentLife.
What other unique kinds of therapies have you heard of? Has your child participated in cooking therapy or another unique therapy? Tell us about it!
