Handle the fork

[Somni]

Hi everybody, I hope I'm allowed to write in this forum. I live in Switzerland with my son and he has dyspraxia. I just recently saw a documentary about the topic and it described the behavior of my son (13 in a month) so precisely that I'm convinced he has dyspraxia. I just asked for a date at the Neuro-Pädiatric Clinic and hope we can go there soon.

By the way I'm extremely glad to have found this forum to get an idea what the problems are my son could deal with in a couple of years.

Right now a have a question about a "problem" that comes up about twice a day: my son seems to be unable to hold the fork properly. Actually at the age between about 5 and 10 he hold it usually the right way. Since one or two years he hold it like a hammer. It looks so extremely uncultivated for the one sitting opposite (me) and if I imagine that he eats with other people (his boss, his flame..) it feels really miserable.

Since some time I say just "fork" about 5 times a meal and he changes it to the right posiition. Just two minutes after he holds it again like a Hammer and after a couple of minutes I say again "fork" .... Since two, three weeks I feel that he is fed up of this fork-topic.

Does it make any sense to correct him or is it only making him feel miserable? Is he anyhow not able to learn this? Should I better let him hold the fork the way he does it naturally?

Thanks a lot for reading and answering and kind regards

[Tom fod]

Hi and welcome

He clearly finds it more comfortable and at 13 apart from your reminding him thetre is probably not the social pressure to conform and hold his fork like most other people.

I tend to shovel rather than use back of my fork but then I am greedy/English. Have you asked him about how he feels about being reminded?

[Jenna]

Hi,

I often find that holding a fork the 'traditional' way is very uncomfortable. My mom was always the same as you as well but I knew she meant well.
I find it easier to hold it almost like a spoon, It looks a lot neater than holding it like a hammer.
Maybe try a few different techniques and see how it feels about that
The same goes for holding a pen, I always had trouble with this too!!

[ComicBookFan]

I can relate. How I hold cutlery or a pen has raised a few eyebrows over the years. I didn't really become aware of it though until a former work colleague made fun of how I ate at a work Christmas party.