Using a Spoon

We got a neat tip for teaching a child how to use a spoon from the physical therapist this past week. If you take an elastic band usually used to make a pony tail in girls' hair (I believe my wife calls these things scrunchies.) and wrap it around the spoon and the child's hand, it practically holds the spoon for the child. The trick is to slip the band on first and push it up near the bowl of the spoon. Then have the child grab the handle of the spoon. Lastly, twist and stretch the spoon over the child's hand and hook it over the end of the spoon's handle. This will hold the spoon in place leaving your little one to focus on getting the food up to his or her mouth.

I came home from work on one evening this week and my little Whitney had almost finished eating an entire helping of mac and cheese with a spoon all by herself using this trick. She was so proud. I was pretty proud too! Granted, even though this trick does eliminate the dropped spoons that were so frequent around my house. We're still working very hard on not dumping the food all over the place on the way to her mouth. But I'm sure that will come in time! In the mean time I'm sure glad we have a good broom!