Introduction and Exploration of Spoon in Infancy at Home

Abstract

During the process of appropriating the spoon, children need to detect and acquire a series of functional motor skills, as well as certain social norms associated with the use of this tool. With this descriptive study we intend to obtain information on the temporal sequencing of access to the spoon and other cutlery, and what explorations the children make in the Portuguese family context. Data on 115 Portuguese toddlers were obtained through a structured online questionnaire. The results reveal that: i) there is a clear notion that the child needs an object scaled to the size of his/her hand; ii) the spoon favors the opportunity to physical, functional, solitary and social play; iii) explore spoon - use spoon - explore fork - explore knife is the temporal sequence of access to cutlery, significantly phased throughout the early childhood; iv) the toddler is able to explore the spoon as an instrument for functions other than those related to eating. Thus, the spoon has a very diverse potential for learning how to use an instrument, for exploring the functional properties of objects and for the social and cultural development of young children.