[Lucretia Borgia]

EB is a pretty good barometer of these things (kind of....?), so I thought I would throw it out there....

DS is 6, in yr 1 (NSW).....and tonight I decided to try to get him to use his knife and fork properly...so fork in left hand, knife in right , prongs of fork to secure food while knife cuts through ...

Prior to this I have been cutting up his food (say, a sausage) ...and he would either eat with his fingers or use fork in right hand and eat it that way, same with pasta....some times with rice he might use a spoon....

I'm not overly concerned about this.....bit of background: DS's fine motor skills have never been great, he struggles with his pencil grip at school, buttons were a problem but he's fine now, and we are also, now, trying to teach him to do his shoe laces ....any thing like this does not come naturally to him, and he needs to be shown over and over again before he will get it.

As I said, I'm not overly worried about it, and the only thing that prompted me to act tonight was my MIL is coming down to stay for a week ( ...long story and quite possibly the subject of a vent next Friday night...) and it occurred to me that this (along with many other things) might cause some raised eyebrows....and, I'm just curious!

[Orangedrops]

My daughter is also six and is just starting to get the hang of using a knife and fork properly.

[JRA]

Can't remember, a long way before 6.


Eta: some things were tough for a while, the brekky place we frequented out eggs Benedict on ciabatta with really tough crusts and he struggled with that for some time, and a few other tough things

It is really about practicing and expectations, if they don't practice it won't happen.

This post has been edited by JRA: 10/02/2013, 06:47 PM

[katrina24]

Hi, I have 2 girls aged 5 and 7. They both use a fork and spoon properly ( for quite some time now). The 5 year old is better than her older sister with a knife but neither are at all graceful with them. The 7 year old has no FM issues, just no desire to use her knife properly.

[mibi]

Ds7 sounds much like your son-he's had OT for fine motor skills and he is not very good at all with using a knife, so we haven't pushed the issue too much-only occasionally.

[Lucretia Borgia]

Thanks for your responses everyone!

Can't remember, a long way before 6.


Eta: some things were tough for a while, the brekky place we frequented out eggs Benedict on ciabatta with really tough crusts and he struggled with that for some time, and a few other tough things

It is really about practicing and expectations, if they don't practice it won't happen.

This is true JRA, DH and I haven't pushed the issue with him, many nights throughout the week we don't sit down to eat with him because DH works late, etc etc...so it's not really his fault that he doesn't know how to do these things....

[Swahili]

DD is 6 and has been using a knife and fork correctly for at least the last year.

[Sunny003]

Our boys are 8 & 6 and have been using a knife and fork for years (maybe since each were 4?).

Just because they're capable of using them, doesn't mean they do though LOL

ETA: have you tried swapping hands? Fork in right hand, knife in left. I did this until at least my 20's. Think I still do it now sometimes.

This post has been edited by Sunny003: 10/02/2013, 07:51 PM

[libbylu]

My son is six and struggles the times we get him to use both knife and fork. He has very good fine motor skills but is mostly left handed (for writing, drawing and using a spoon/fork) but insists on holding his knife and fork in a right handed way, which I am sure creates issues for himself. Since DH and I are right handed it is also harder to teach him.
I am not really sure what to do about it. I guess I should just give him more practice. I really think he should be holding them the other way though.

[stopwhiningatme]

Mine are almost 6, and 7 and don't. Or can't. I haven't paid too much attention to be honest. They'll work it out.

Era, obviously they can use a fork, and spoon. Just not a knife and fork together.

This post has been edited by stopwhiningatme: 10/02/2013, 09:13 PM