BLW - Perfect Preparation For Pencils
Baby-led weaning (BLW) involves allowing your child to use their
hands to eat their food and you may find people criticising you for making such
a mess – after all, the puree spoon-fed babies are eating off spoons which is
the goal, right? In fact, you are giving your child so many opportunities to
developmentally work on their motor control to encourage them to use cutlery
properly which will set them up for pencil control.
Food is an extension of toys. Your child sees a toy, is
interested and puts it in their mouth and the same process occurs when eating.
Toys are used as an education and development tool and food and mealtimes are
no different.
The hand development to use cutlery is the same as gaining
control of the arm and hand in order to write so gaining good hand control will
set your child setup for good pen control. Here’s how:
Inhibition of the
grasp reflex. Your child is using their hands each time they eat and in
order to get the food to mouth, they need to let go of it, which is the
beginning of grasp reflex suppression. Remember how your little one would grab
on to your hair and not let go? Those days are being left behind as your little
one learns to let go of things voluntarily. Be prepared for phases of dropping
food from the highchair as they go through this – it is a developmental phase
and not (always) naughty behaviour.
Fisted grasp
refinement. First weaning foods are often big sticks of roasted veggies or
broccoli spears. Serving up a selection of foods of different weights,
textures, which need different degrees of muscle recruitment to pick them up,
help improve the control over the muscles of the arm. Learning how tight to
hold the fist so the sweet potato chunk doesn’t squidge everywhere, or how much
shoulder muscle recruitment is needed to hold the empty cup versus the heavy
one are all essential lessons. Even now, you may find yourself picking something
up expecting it to be heavier than it is and flinging it high in the air – but you
will learn and probably not do it again.
Multi-Grasp-Release.
Initially, your baby will grasp with one hand and the other will automatically
do the same. This will over time change and they will, given the opportunity,
grasp an object with one hand whilst picking up another with the other hand. Offer
you child a choice of foods on a plate and they will pick up one thing they
like with one hand and be putting it in their mouth whilst they reach for another
with the other hand. We see this commonly with children who maybe love
strawberries and so have several slices on a plate and are reaching for the
next whilst the other is being popped in – gobbling it down. Only once this
skill is mastered, can your child move on to the next stage of refining finger
movement.
Suppression of the
Babkin response. Initially, as your newborn suckles, their fists will
clench (Babkin response) and this is because in the early days the hands and
mouth are your baby’s main ways of expressing themselves. This neurological
link needs to be suppressed else you may find your child sticking their tongue
out when they write (hands and mouth still linked) and other developmental
skills won’t be able to come forward. We sometimes see speech development delays
since the mouth can’t be controlled independently of the hands. Your child will
need to use their hands and mouth independently through self-feeding in order
to pick up other foods as they eat, helping this response to be suppressed.
Development of the
Pincer grip. Picking foods up of different shapes and sizes will encourage
hand dexterity and development of different grasps. Picking up peas, sweetcorn
and blueberries will probably initially be done as a side-sweep but over time
the pincer grip will come through – a massive developmental leap for the
fingers and so the muscles of the fingers now being put in a different position
will start to strengthen - perfect preparation for pencils.
Copying. With everyone
eating the same foods and enjoying mealtimes together, your child will learn
that using cutlery is how you eat and to try different positions to get the arm
in to. This strengthening of the hand and arm and early manipulation of the
fingers are all warming-up the motor control of the hand ready for writing.
Hand dominance.
From around the age of 2 your little one will develop a dominant hand. Some
parents mistakenly think that being ambidextrous is the goal but in fact it is
much better for your child to develop strength and dexterity in one hand so it
flourishes in fine motor skills and the other one to work on being a supporting
hand. Think about it – it is far better to have two specialised hands that do
their jobs well rather than a pair of mediocre hands trying to be everything to
everyone. Allowing your baby to self-feed gives them a head start, since
self-feeding develops their sense of bilateral co-ordination. For example, holding the pod steady whilst he
picks out the peas, holding the plate whilst he helps himself to another
serving, holding the orange whilst he peels the skin, are all ways your little
one is starting to rehearse their sided dominance and their hands are rehearsing
their jobs already.
Hand control and
spatial awareness are intrinsically linked and so being able to grasp
objects in the hands coming from different directions will help with the hand
development. Having foods on a plate or spread across a highchair table
improves spatial awareness since they will need to reach for the food, pick it
up and put it in the mouth. That’s a lot of things going on and your 6 month
old is rehearsing it through self-feeding.
Hand awareness is
another key part of development of the hand, so allowing your child to explore
different shapes, textures and objects with their hands will encourage this. Children
often have lots of toys but repeatedly use the same 6 or 7. This is not enough and
so self-feeding with hands from the moment a child is weaned is ideal since each
time a child eats, a variety of foods are made available – all with different
colour, texture, size, shape.
As an aside, making new foods available to your child will
encourage speech since they will be interesting and encourage them to try it
(improving willingness to accept new foods) as well as improving speech since
he will be encourage to describe it or name it in order to request it
So, you can see that allowing your child to feed themselves
a variety of foods of different shapes and textures from the moment they are
weaned can help develop their hand control enabling them to grasp the basic
skills, suppress the relevant reflexes to enable them to manipulate cutlery and
pens.
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set our little ones a good example and encourage sharing. We don't mind
you using any of the information, recipes and tips from our website, all
we ask is that you credit us hard-working mummies here at Yummy
Discoveries.
Thank you x
Photographs courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net
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