Cooking together isn’t just about making a meal. In addition to teaching your child how to prepare food for themselves, it teaches them valuable skills they can apply elsewhere.

We spoke with clinical psychologist Kate Deer, PsyD, and occupational therapist Sydney Martin, MS OTR/L, BCP, to understand the benefits of cooking with your child and how they use it in their work with kids.

5 benefits of cooking with kids

1. Cooking helps kids develop fine motor skills

Measuring, stirring, cutting and pouring are all examples of how children can develop and help refine their motor skills during cooking. Learning these basic motions and coordination can transfer to so many things, including writing and playing games and sports.

“To help develop motor skills, sometimes we use different tools — using a long chopstick is more fun for kids than eating them the regular way,” says Martin. “Be creative with the utensils you use. Little corn holders are also fun for kids and they have the little handle that fits their small hands.”

2. Cooking helps strengthen kids’ executive functioning

Executive function is how the brain manages the way you accomplish a complex task. This skill helps you plan, focus and execute. Cooking helps children develop this type of thinking by showing them how to follow steps and helping them understand that things need to go in a certain order, like when reading a recipe.

Other executive functioning skills include learning patience and regulating emotions. For example, if your child spills something they have just measured, you can teach them to be calm, clean up, and measure it again.

Most parts of the cooking process also can’t be rushed. If we want the dish to taste the best, it needs to marinate or cook in the oven for a certain amount of time. This teaches kids patience and that for some things, we need to take our time for them to turn out the best they can be.

Both Deer and Martin use cooking as a way to help patients improve executive function skills. To start out, Martin says she might help the kids do something as simple as making cereal; showing them the steps of getting a bowl, pouring the cereal, pouring the milk, then getting a spoon. Depending on your child’s developmental level, you can start with something simple and eventually move all the way up to reading a full recipe and completing all the steps.  

3. Cooking teaches kids emotional regulation and confidence

Cooking is a journey, and oftentimes, an experiment. Mistakes happen, but that’s how we learn. The important thing is that we keep calm and do our best to fix our mistakes.

One of the best things about cooking is taking that first bite of your finished result. Kids can see their efforts turn into a tangible thing they can enjoy themselves and share with others. This gives kids a wonderful boost of confidence and a well-deserved sense of accomplishment. They may even find that the food they make themselves tastes better than pre-made dishes they can buy at a grocery store or fast food.

“Kids love to mimic their caregivers, and we want to encourage them to join in on these activities that seem so cool to them,” says Deer. “Feeling proud of themselves is something we want to reinforce.”

4. Cooking helps kids improve their nutrition literacy

Seeing everything that goes into a dish helps kids understand food at a basic level. Suddenly food doesn’t seem so foreign to them. Understanding how food is made helps remove the mystery around it and promotes a healthy relationship with food. This also helps them get more familiar with food they might not be used to or like. Touching and smelling food before they taste it helps kids get more comfortable with new foods and makes them more likely to try them.

“While picky eating can be developmentally natural, it’s also our responsibility as caregivers to ensure adequate nutrition,” says Deer. “Set expectations while giving choice. You’ll eat your broccoli as long as you can dip it in ketchup — OK! Cooking with kids is a great way to expand diet and bravery with different types of food.”

5. Cooking helps kids develop healthy relationships with food

Cooking with your children also helps open a dialogue about food. Showing children the ingredients that go into food helps them understand why some have more fat or sugar. While our registered dietician says that all food should be looked at as fuel, and we should strive for a diversity of food in our diet, some foods can be more efficient fuel than others. If your child has challenges with food, cooking with them is a great way to break the ice.

“Cooking with kids and eating as a family is also a good way to talk about healthy body image and demonstrate how to listen to body cues,” Deer explains.

Cooking with children with developmental challenges

Cooking is also a useful activity for children with unique developmental needs. Here are a few ideas to help:

• Use photos: Showing pictures of food and letting your child pick out the food from your kitchen is a good confidence boost and lets them know they can make decisions that make a difference in the planning phase. Pictures are very helpful to maximize each child's learning style and using a visual schedule works well for those with developmental challenges.
• Use videos: Videos are also a great tool to teach the steps of cooking tasks.
• Keep it simple: Adding and mixing ingredients are also tasks that many children can do and very helpful.  

Cooking safety for kids

When it comes to culinary arts, safety is a priority. Watch any cooking TV show these days, and you’ll see that even professional chefs get injured while cooking. Make sure your kids are using cooking equipment that is age appropriate.

Cooking safety for toddlers

Here are a few ways toddlers can safely help cook:

• While knives are too advanced for toddlers, a cookie cutter is a fun way to make their favorite sandwich into a star-shaped treat they’ll love to eat.
• They can also help mix ingredients, with a little supervision of course.
• If you grow fruits or vegetables in your garden, picking them with your toddler is a safe activity they can do that gets them interested in fresh produce.  

Cooking safety for kids

Tips to remember when cooking with kids:

• Depending on your child’s age and development level, they can start using butter knives and then sharper knives.
• Stoves, ovens and microwaves should still be used with supervision.
• While many kids are taught early to be careful of the stove, make sure they’re also aware that they can get burned by steam or hot liquid, even from food coming out of a microwave. It’s also important for kids to know that metal cannot be used in a microwave.

Cooking safety for teens

Teenagers can typically handle more advanced cooking equipment as long as they understand the proper techniques. However, some tools are more dangerous than others, such as a mandolin. Make sure they are aware of the risks and know how to use each piece of equipment safely before they begin.

How do kids feel about cooking?

In addition to our specialists, we spoke with 11-year-old Anna, who loves cooking and baking.

Pancakes are one of her favorite things to make because she can easily adjust the recipe to her taste, like adding more vanilla extract, for example. She also sometimes likes to add chocolate chips. Being able to alter the recipe to her liking gives her a sense of confidence and independence.

In addition to pancakes, Anna has added cookies and guacamole to her culinary repertoire. She uses a sugar cookie recipe from her great-grandmother and likes to make different shapes with cookie cutters.

Guacamole is another great dish that Anna can change to her taste and add or subtract ingredients based on what she likes. She says that cooking is an activity she loves to do with friends.

“After a sleepover, we wake up and make pancakes together,” Anna says. And yes, they often add chocolate chips. Of course, the best thing about cooking, Anna says, is that you get to eat the result of all your work.

Resources for cooking with kids

• MyPlate.gov provides healthy dietary guidelines.
• The Ellyn Satter Institute helps individuals and families develop a positive and joyful relationship with food.
• KidsHealth.org has ideas for ways to get kids involved in cooking.