Why You Should Use Visual Recipes with Your Toddler

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A little over two years ago I had a one and a half year old who loved to cook with me in the kitchen. His language was starting to really blossom and I was brainstorming more ways to involve him. Then I thought of an idea that led to some incredible development over the next couple of years: visual recipes.

I spent many hours making ingredient icons and developing recipes he could eventually use somewhat independently. I made visuals of some of our most beloved recipes and created some new ones. I also made a visual shopping list that would involve my son more in our shopping trips. Visual recipes became one of the most powerful learning tools in our Montessori home.

My son loved the recipes from when I first introduced them. He could recognize a banana on the recipe. I went through the recipe with him from the first ingredient, giving him the language of each ingredient and showing the direction we read, and how recipes are sequenced.

Over the next several months my son was doing more and more of that on his own. He would go through and point to ingredients, say the ingredient name, use words like “first” and “next”, make connections between what he was doing and what the recipe said. I watched his language develop here as he learned more and more words and went from single words to full sentences. I truly believe that the visual recipes helped him develop some of his language skills- in particular sequencing words and vocabulary for ingredients.

I also believe visual recipes served as a solid pre-reading foundation for my son. He was able to “read” the recipe from left to right, to understand that what is going on on paper translates to what he is doing in the kitchen. My son became a reader very young, and though a lot of factors contributed to this, I can’t help but think the skills he gained from visual recipes were one of those things.

Visual recipes also decreased the frustration in the kitchen. Moving on from a preferred task such as mixing to placing the item in the oven can be hard. Seeing the next step (the oven or stove) on the recipe helped my children understand what came next and move on.

How to introduce visual recipes

I introduced visual recipes to my older children when they were around a year and a half. With both children, I started by pointing to the ingredients, telling them what each ingredient was, and using words like “next.” Before adding each ingredient, I would show them where it was on the recipe. Many of the recipes had a few words they knew from the beginning so they would often say them.

As their vocabulary grew they started pointing out more ingredients on the recipe and making connections between the ingredients on the recipe and where they are in our kitchen. My son started to take the lead, saying things like “next up is cinnamon” and overall following the recipe and understanding the sequencing. I would aid this by encouraging him to tell me what was next and pausing instead of immediately grabbing the next ingredient.

I let my children take the lead on this. I will ask what is next and guide them in finding it if necessary. As my son got older I would give him more challenge on that, seeing if he could remember what we did last and see what happened next. With my early talkers I would point to an ingredient and say “this is…” leaving a pause but then filling in if they didn’t answer. This is a tip I got from a speech-language pathologist friend to encourage words without quizzing. I have always been careful to keep it fun and light, focusing on building vocabulary through modelling but also encouraging talking.

When my son was nearly 3 he was able to follow the recipe independently. Of course I had to guide with measurements but if everything was pre-measured he could go through and do the recipe with no help. This was incredible to see and so empowering to him.

Try visual recipes with your toddler

Are you interested in trying visual recipes with your toddler? I offer two different sets of visual recipes. If you are just getting started I recommend my visual recipes and toddler cooking guide. It offers a mini guide into introducing cooking with your toddler as well as visual recipes, a visual shopping list, and the tools to make your own recipes. If you have a Canva pro account you can use the included Canva template to make your own recipes. Alternatively, there is a blank sheet that I have often used with the printed ingredients to create recipes on the fly. I laminated the sheet and ingredients and used velcro dots so they can be reused. I use the same ingredients on my visual shopping list.

I also offer a book and cook guide. Here I paired beloved childrens books with recipes. For example, our favorite blueberry muffins are paired with Blueberries for Sal. These are books you likely have at home, but if not they are available at the library and also linked in the recipe book.

Both my recipe collections are Montessori-aligned using real pictures. They use fruit for sweetener and avoid added-sugar. Most, save for a couple with eggs, can be made vegan and all should be able to be made gluten-free with your favorite gluten free flour.