Learning To Use Cutlery
Did you know that rushing your child in to using cutlery can
actually hold them back developmentally?
Big to Small and Close to Far
The principles of child motor development are “big to small”
and “close to far”. This means children will develop the bigger, chunkier
muscles of the trunk and arms before the smaller muscles of the hands. The
muscles closer to the trunk (shoulders), will develop before the muscles
further away (hands). When a child is encouraged to use a “proper” grasp of
cutlery before the shoulder and arm muscles are ready to support it, fine motor
problems may emerge, such as holding the cutlery in peculiar ways, avoidance
using cutlery or even tantrums and refusal to sit down to eat. So don’t be in a
rush to make your little one hold their cutlery properly, let them learn
naturally and probably around the age of 4 years they will have naturally suppressed
reflexes and learned new skills to be holding their spoon or fork in a more
“adult” way.
Running before you can walk
Like when learning to walk, children go through sequential phases of
sitting – crawling – standing – walking. The same applies with the
development of the hand. Control of the hand goes through different
developmental stages:
Stage
1: Initially, you may find your little one holding their cutlery in a fist (grasp)
with their elbow high up in the air. This is the remnants of the grasp reflex –
you might remember how you would offer your newborn your finger and they would
respond by clenching their fist tightly around it
Stage
2: Before your child can move on any further, the grasp reflex needs to be
fully inhibited, which means they should be able to let go of an object
quickly, easily and voluntarily. Building blocks of towers is a great way of
doing this since your little one needs to precisely release an object to stack it. Don’t be surprised if during this time lots of food is being
dropped from the highchair – this is your child developing.
Stage
3: Later, they will start to straighten their index finger to gain control over
the cutlery - this is a key transition stage and is a sign that your child is developing independent finger control. No longer are the fingers treated as a single entity but are 10 individual digits in their own right. Your little one by this time will have probably had over the last couple of years hundreds of different foods on their hands. They will have separated spaghetti strands and licked slimy sauces off their fingers. These different textures and sensations on the hands and fingers help disassociate them from each other allowing your child to recognise they are each individual and so through self-feeding and BLW you should be well on your way.
Stage
4: At around 3 or 4 years of age, a “brush” grasp might be used so the cutlery
is held in the fingers rather than in the fist and the elbow is still probably
up high. You will probably see this same grip being used when they are painting.
Stage
5: As your little one spends time watching people eat with cutlery, they learn
that bringing the elbow down and resting the forearm on the table gives better
control - another good reason to eat together. With so many of us eating with
just a fork nowadays, children don’t know what to do with a knife when they get
to school (and don’t get me started on those knorks (combined knife and fork) –
ludicrous!). Using a knife is a life skill and is another step towards your child’s
independence and so age-appropriate, supervised use of a knife when eating is a key part of learning.
Stage
6: Up to now, the cutlery control has come all from the shoulder and wrist
(big muscles and those closest to the body) but providing finger control has
been allowed to develop (hopefully by you allowing your child to self-feed from
weaning stage, through picking up their different shaped/ weighted food with
their hands) your little one will now have the fine muscle control in their fingers and
hands to manipulate the cutlery using the hand and finger muscles. In most children this won’t be until they are 4 ½ years old but every
child is different.
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Thank you x
This is very interesting. My boy is nearly 10 months and has taken to bow really well, we are having a great time. He uses his hands really well, has a good pincer grip and for some time we have been using a spoon whereby I fill it, he puts it in his mouth then he drops it and I fill it again. I have given him a fork a few times so he gets used to one and am wondering at what point would I expect him to start dipping and later scoop with a spoon? I have heard babies may find a fork easier than a spoon? Having read your blog I don't want to rush him but am more curious about when I could encourage him into the next stage. Thanks
ReplyDeleteHi Mel, Each child will develop at their own pace but there are some things you can do to encourage him to suppress the reflexes which might inhibit the cutlery use and allow the fine motor control to develop to use cutlery. Children go through phases of using cutlery - some parents report their child grabbed a spoon from the moment they were weaned only at around 12-18 months to shun the spoon and opt for hand-feeding. This is normal. The way cutlery is held in a 10 month old is alot different to the "adult-hold" and as he develops he will change his mind. For example, a child who likes to hold a spoon when weaning initially might rely on their palmar grasp reflex to hold the spoon but once that reflex is suppressed they need to rely on conscious muscle control to grasp the spoon which makes it a little more challenging - they may stop trying altogether but this is normal. Forks are often a little trickier to master since the strength often needed to pierce a food to put it on the fork is hard to judge initially. It doesn't help either that many children's forks are far too blunt to actually stab a food effectively and the patience needed to master this often leads to a child giving up - much quicker to eat with the hands. Spoons are much easier but used in the primitive way where the palm of the hand faces downwards and the bowl of the spoon faces the ceiling the whole time. The action of being able to turn a spoon in the "supination" movement to scoop it up in the way an adult would is an advanced movement so don't expect it too soon. You will be surprised at how much you are already doing through play to get your son ready for cutlery. Focusing on the motor development of the hand and hand-eye co-ordination will all help. Simple games such as sitting on the floor and handing him a toy from different directions will help improve the perception of direction and space as well as hand-eye coordination. Awareness of the hands and fingers through manipulating all different objects and textures is useful - things like messy play are wonderful for this where they can finger spaghetti and squelch cornflour. Mastering cutlery involves judging the different weights and size of foods and how to contract the muscles appropriately in the arm to bring the loaded fork to the mouth (have you ever picked something up expecting it to be heavier?) so manipulating toys of different weights, sizes and consistency prepares for this. As you can see, everything is play-focused and I expect you are doing most of this without even realising the benefit it is having. Specifically, things like practicing holding and releasing (conscious control needed to pick up cutlery), crawling on the floor (to build the strength in the upper body and build a cross pattern where one arm can move up to the mouth whilst the other stays down), playing give-and-take with different sized objects (to be able to judge weight) and building towers (precise release of blocks is needed here). One of the most important things to be able to manage cutlery is body awareness - playing with the fingers, painting the hands all stimulate the feedback to the brain and increases awareness of the fingers - building the sensory homunculus in the brain. I hope this helps and I'm so glad you're finding our work interesting! Get in touch if we can help further!
ReplyDeleteThank you this had reassured me alot to just go with the flow and let him lead. As I read this I think about the different things he has started to do; how he sometimes consciously drops his food (over the side of the high chair) to see where it goes and how just recently he has started rotating the spoon in his mouth one complete turn before taking it out (which may be due to teething or he is just experimenting, who knows) but I am now happy this is all part of his learning and we shall just continue to enjoy this stage and play some more! I really get that you know what you are talking about and I am learning a lot so thanks again!
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