FM.B.29 TAKES AN OBJECT FROM A CONTAINER

In this exercise the child learns to reach in over the side of a container and lift an object up and out.

How to Assess

Materials: A small block in an open bowl (such as a cereal bowl) of a contrasting colour.

Method: Present the bowl to the child, show him the object and say ‘Take’. Hold the bowl steady on the table so that the child cannot tip the object out. Use a low table – your child should not have to reach up and over the sides of the bowl.

Score plus if your child takes the block.

How to Teach

You will need bowls with low rims, such as the base of a pot-plant container, cereal bowls and other containers.

If your child has difficulty taking from a cereal bowl, start with bowls with lower rims. Place the bowl so that your child can reach out and down to it. Guide your child’s hand if necessary. Use a consistent direction, ‘Take’. Once he masters the cereal bowl, present a variety of different containers.

Playtime and Round-the-house Activities

Put your child’s toys into bowls, ice-cream containers and buckets. Let him take a biscuit from the biscuit jar or a clothes peg from the peg bag. Instead of putting his finger foods on the table-top, put them in containers.

Remembering and Extending

Once your child has mastered this skill, you will be able to combine practice at taking with teaching the new skill of putting (see Sequence FM.D).