Teaching kids essential life skills can be a rewarding journey, filled with moments of progress and achievement. Patience, encouragement, and consistency will be your allies as you guide your child toward independence in dressing and self-care.
In the final video of a five-part-series, we provide guidance on developing a child's skills to use cutlery. We discuss the natural developmental progression of these skills, considerations when teaching, such as lifestyle, culture, environment, physical considerations & technique. Finally, we dip into some troubleshooting and support strategies if progress is a challenge with teaching independence skills, be they dressing or using cutlery.
If you have further questions or need to troubleshoot individual challenges your child experiences, please contact the occupational therapist in your local children's disability network team.
In this video:
00:00 Intro/ typical development & important considerations
01:50 Developing knife & fork skills
03:57 Troubleshooting progress, problem solving, using cues
05:00 Closing remarks ...
References: Case-Smith, J., Clifford O’Brien, J. (2015) Occupational Therapy for Children and Adolescents. 7th Ed. https://books.google.com/books/about/...
Pollock, N., Missiuna, C., McKechnie, A., Embrey, T. (2012); CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research (https://www.canchild.ca/) Sharma, A., Cockerill, H., Sanctuary, L. (2021) Mary Sheridan's From Birth to Five Years Children's Developmental Progress. 5th Ed. (https://www.books.ie/mary-sheridan-s-...)
YouTube links mentioned in this video: T-Shirt - 
• Getting Dressed: How to Put on a T-Sh... Putting on jumper - • Autism Video Modelling to Teach Self ... Putting on a coat - • Video Modeling in Autism: Putting on ... Putting on socks - • Teaching children to put on socks Trousers - • Getting Dressed: How to Put on Pants ... Socks - • Backward Chaining Putting on Socks Buttons, zips and laces - • Learn To Tie Your Shoes! Alternative method for shoelaces - • Occupational Therapy Shoe Tying Alter... Knife and fork - • Learning to use a knife and fork More on the concept of the prompting hierarchy: https://reachingexceptionallearners.c... https://arc.educationapps.vic.gov.au/...
Find out more about the MATCH approach: M.A.T.C.H. Flyers: A Resource for Educators - https://www.canchild.ca/en/resources/... https://elearningcanchild.ca/dcd_work...
SMART goals: https://www.scirp.org/(S(czeh2tfqyw2o... https://www.books.ie/mary-sheridan-s-...
Backward chaining technique in-depth: https://www.nhsggc.org.uk/media/26837...
