Chopsticks. They are a challenge to a lot of kids and some adults. Getting all of your fingers organized to move two little sticks in a way that you can pick up food of various sizes and shapes is hard. Especially for people with motor skill difficulties like my son.
Part of his Autism is lack of fine and gross motor skill control. His fingers don’t want to do what he tells them too. We work on it daily but sometimes even holding a pencil is challenging. I never thought that chopsticks would enter into his dinner routines. But…
When he saw an episode of the cartoon Special Agent Oso and the main character was helping with Chinese New Year and had to learn to use chopsticks, suddenly my son HAD TO HAVE CHOPSTICKS!
That night we were having pork chops. He wanted to use chopstick so bad that he refused to use his fork and then refused to eat at all until I got him chopsticks. I was willing but also prepared for trouble if it didn’t work. I was completely shocked to see him concentrating so hard until he managed to pick up a piece of meat with the chopsticks. He has since tried using chopsticks on everything including his cereal but he hasn’t has as much success as that first time. He hasn’t given up but he is getting frustrated.
Then we saw something wonderful on an episode of Castle. Weird I know….
They are hinges that help you hold the chopsticks and work them properly. Who knew this was a thing? Yeah I know everybody but me, right?
So we ordered them off of Amazon and when they finally arrived we wanted to practice. Of course there isn’t anything in the house that was readily available. I found some yogurt covered raisins but that wasn’t a great choice. Dad to the rescue! He made popcorn…
They sat down with a bowl each of popcorn and started practicing.
It took a few tries and some work but my son finally got the hang of the hinges.
He managed to eat almost two bowls full of popcorn using his chopsticks.
I think I’ll be making Chinese food tonight. So he can really show what he’s got!
adriana pridemore 
