Even Breakfast is Therapy

Jack is great with independently feeding himself finger foods. Utensil use, however, has been a challenge with the exception of his morning oatmeal. At least part of it has to do with his fine motor challenges--small hands with fingers that don't bend.

However, it also recently occurred to us (DOH!) that it is also a visual challenge. Jack has not yet learned to completely accomodate for his lack of depth perception. He often does not use his vision in fine motor tasks--kind of like his brain decided it was too difficult so it took the path of least resistance--and instead feels for things rather than looking.

It occurred to me that he does absolutely fine scooping his oatmeal so perhaps we should try making all of his food spoonable and putting it into a bowl. This worked pretty well for foods that were okay to get mixed up like your meat and veggies. But not so well when things like oatmeal and scrambled eggs with cheese, mushrooms, peppers, and onions got mixed together. Jack wouldn't eat that. (Who blames him?)

Enter the divided plate. We have a bunch of these from taking lunches to work. They are great because they have high sides for ease of scooping and they keep foods seperated.

So far, so good.

If you've got any tips for teaching utensil use to a child with fine motor issues or a visual impairment or both, I'd love to hear them!

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