For ages now, at least 4 months, Hattie and I have been working on the concept of putting objects into a box. This is important for fine motor skills-it shows that she has the eye-hand coordination to direct her hand to a specific place and release the object. It is also important for cognitive development, it is a huge leap to go from taking things out of a box to realizing that she has the ability to create- to fill up the boxes and bowls, to build things instead of just taking them apart.
So we've been working on it. She is a star at emptying things-laundry baskets, candy jars, diaper boxes, ANYTHING! But when I hand her a toy to put back into the container, she tosses it over her shoulder and laughs. Often she even claps in joy at thwarting me.
And I have been frustrated. SO FRUSTRATED. We had an evaluation with an occupational therapist last week and she noted this activity, and handing items to an adult as skills that Hattie needs to work on. So yesterday we got out some toys and I showed her how to hand them to me, making much of it when she got it into my hand. Today it only took a few prompts for her to successfully put a variety of toys into my hand from a box. I put the lid from the box in my hand and kept saying "For Mommy!" and she was like, "cool, lady, here ya go. Now clap for me!!!" SUCCESS! Would it work if I held the box itself? "No big deal, why do you look giddy? The cow is in the box, who cares, clap for me!"
Oh Hattie, I am sorry. You figured out this skill in 20 minutes. I see that I had failed to find the correct way to teach you in a way that worked for you all this time. As we go on in our journey of learning new things, I'll try to keep thinking outside of the box.
