My daughter is 5 and has autism - one of the ways this affects her is that she has some communication difficulties.

But she drew these pictures yesterday. The first one is all the ingredients for cake, and the second one is a cake on the table for my birthday (which it isn't yet). I was pretty impressed with her design, and the fact that she mostly knows the recipe for the chocolate cake I mostly make.

Oh, those are my hands clapping on the left - not what you were probably imagining they are.

Beautiful! She really captured the joy and amazement of you looking at the cake and her happiness.

AMy elder daughter is also autistic and every year she loves to design the cake and invitations for her birthday. She is not interested in actually baking the cake - or playing with the party guests for that matter! - but she takes great care in a detailed design.

The fact that your daughter accurately picked the cake ingredients shows her great powers of observation - often my daughter is taking a lot in, but you would never know as she won't talk about it or even change her expression - in fact, she often seems completely absorbed in her book or own thoughts, but she's always watching!

One thing my daughter does enjoy is the creativity of modelling with fondant or gumpaste. Each year she makes a spectacular gingerbread house with incredible detail and she loves to make toppers for daddy's birthday cupcakes. The important thing is not to talk, just let her "be" and she will happily work away. Of course she makes detailed designs for these creations too! Maybe this is something your daughter would enjoy too.

It's wonderful when art becomes the pathway for communication.

This post just warms my heart; thank you for sharing this with us. Back in the day I used to Nanny an autistic little girl; and that was one of the best experiences of my life; brings back many happy memories. 

This is really, really special. Thank you for sharing!

she's drawing with perspective -- the table legs, the mixing bowl, flour, vanilla and sugar -- and she's five?  

wow i'm so impressed with her sweet little self -- sniff sniff sniff

oh this reminds me of an older boy and and his mom who came into the bakery y'know just to see if he wanted to buy some cookies, make a transaction -- sometimes it worked ;)  he liked colors and sequences -- i loved to wait on him/them

Love it!  Thank you for sharing.

Aww, thanks everyone! She definitely has her moments. :)

We're sticking with playdough at the moment, mostly because I don't quite trust her to understand the difference between the toppers for family, and the flowers for a wedding cake, so a blanket 'no' works best at the moment. But I can see that she will enjoy that.