{"id":26772,"date":"2023-03-24T13:49:29","date_gmt":"2023-03-24T13:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?p=26772"},"modified":"2026-03-10T17:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T17:20:12","slug":"baking-luke-della-sensational-tea-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/blog\/baking-luke-della-sensational-tea-party\/","title":{"rendered":"How learning to bake has helped Luke grow in confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Luke has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, and he\u2019s autistic. He attends Sense College, where he\u2019s learning about life skills like cooking. Here, his support worker Della explains how learning to bake has helped Luke work on his fine motor skills, focus and confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Luke<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Luke is a cheeky chappy. We call him a gentle giant, because he\u2019s over six foot tall and such a happy, bubbly gentleman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since I first met him four years ago, he\u2019s become much more confident. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we first started doing cooking sessions, it was hard for him to settle into it. He would often get up and walk out of the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or he would try and get in the fridge, or the cupboards, and pull everything out. He\u2019d try to eat the butter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Luke,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We worked out that he finds it easier to focus when it\u2019s just him in the classroom, and it\u2019s quieter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning how to bake is helping Luke become more independent<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We started out by learning about weighing ingredients in the scales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was all about using Luke\u2019s fine motor skills, by doing things like scooping out flour and putting it in a bowl. It was also about him understanding what he was doing, and how to follow instructions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day, I weighed all the ingredients out for him and put them in cups with handles. Then I gave him a tick list. We wanted to see how far he would get with the list on his own, and how independent he could be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went through the list with him, then I waited to see if he knew what to do with the ingredients, and he did! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he put each ingredient into the bowl, he ticked each one off his list, with minimal support from the staff. The progress he\u2019s shown is amazing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baking helps with Luke\u2019s focus and fine motor skills<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Luke<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of the things I do is put out chocolate chips for him to pick up and put in his cakes. Because he has to pinch to pick them up, it helps him develop his fine motor skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each week I put out a few more for him, to see if he will pick them all up using the pincer technique. Luke has to really focus when doing this. One thing about Luke is that he doesn\u2019t give in, he doesn\u2019t stop. He won\u2019t stop an activity until he\u2019s completed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This term, he\u2019s also started using the electric whisk independently. And he can load the dishwasher, too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past I always felt like I had to work in a fast-paced way with Luke, because otherwise he wouldn\u2019t be involved and engaged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, even when we take things a bit more slowly, he stays focused. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re all so proud of how far Luke has come \u2013 and his delicious cakes!<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the past, when he wasn\u2019t engaged, Luke would eat the ingredients instead of baking. Now, he doesn\u2019t do that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He knows that at the end, once he\u2019s put the mixture into the cupcake cases, he can have a little taste of the mixture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is great progress, because he\u2019s understanding that he has to make the mixture, then he gets the reward of tasting it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These days, he\u2019s so focused when he\u2019s in the kitchen. He knows when he comes into the kitchen that he\u2019s coming there to work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were a lot of hurdles to go over before we could make these cakes. His confidence has grown so much in the kitchen, and it\u2019s wonderful to see how much he enjoys it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Your baking can make a difference for people like Luke<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hold a Sensational Tea Party, and raise money to help our support services for people with complex needs across the UK.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n

\n Sign up now<\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luke attends Sense College, where he\u2019s learning about life skills like cooking. Here, his support worker Della explains how learning to bake has helped him grow in confidence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":26773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"display_author":[1169],"class_list":["post-26772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","display_author-della"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26772"},{"taxonomy":"display_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_author?post=26772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}