FM.B.18 RAKES AND ATTAINS A RAISIN
Picking up small objects may be the last thing you want your child to do, and of course it must be done under supervision. But it is an essential part of the development of hand-eye co-ordination. It has many practical applications – in time the child will use this skill to feed himself.
A baby learning to pick up objects uses his hands like a rake – going over the object and sweeping it back into the palm of the hand. He also begins to use his thumb to direct the object towards his palm.
How to Assess
Materials: A raisin.
Method: Prop the child up in his highchair with his arms free. Place the raisin on the tray of his highchair and draw his attention to it.
Score plus if your child makes a sweeping action to rake and pick up the raisin.
How to Teach
Start by using larger objects – choose a size that will fit neatly into your child’s palm. The objects should be spherical or cube-shaped rather than flat. You could use small blocks, toy farm animals or pegs from a pegboard.
You can hold the object on the palm of your hand or sit with your child on your lap at a table.
We have found that the best place to teach this skill is in a highchair, where the parent can sit facing the child. Some highchairs have rails to prevent food from falling into the child’s lap. These can get in the way and are best removed. Work through the steps below and find the point where your child begins to have difficulty. This will be your first objective.
Always give a clear direction – ‘Take’. Work with each hand.
- Rakes and picks up an object when the-wrist and fingers are guided. Gently supporting your child’s wrist, move his hand over the object, and guide his fingers back so that the object is grasped against his palm.
- Rakes and picks up an object when guided from the wrist. As above, but wait for him to close his own fingers around the object.
- Rakes and picks up an object when guided from the elbow. Now you are helping his arm to move in the right direction, but leaving him free to position his hand and pick up the object himself.
- Rakes and picks up an object with an occasional guiding touch. Let him proceed by himself, gently tapping his arm back in the right direction if he goes off course.
- Rakes and picks up an object with no help.
Now repeat as many steps as necessary, using smaller objects, until your child can rake a raisin.
Some parents have found this difficult because their children take the objects straight to their mouths, resulting in a struggle to get it out.
This is a normal and natural tendency – all children like to explore things with their mouths. Intercept your child’s hand before it reaches his mouth and distract him by looking with him at the object, and/or helping him to shake it, or bang it on the table. Make a game of it.
If your child is already eating lumps of food, you could try this exercise with squares of bread (at meal time), pieces of fruit and so on.
If your child can get small objects to his mouth, he has learned an essential eating skill. It may be inconvenient now, but it will come into its own later!
Playtime and Round-the-house Activities
Of course you can’t leave your child alone to play with small objects, but involve them when you are there to play with him. He can now be encouraged to pick up all the small objects that you were showing him FM.A.11.
Remembering and Extending
Once your child has confidence in picking up small objects, you can try objects that are a little harder to grasp. Try, too, putting the objects in awkward corners of the highchair table, and letting him pick up off different surfaces – a slippery surface, a sand tray, a rough surface and so on.