Chopping vegetables Dyspraxia Movement Skills

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Chopping vegetables

There are two ways that you can use these videos:

Use the video as a movement demonstration. Watch the video and see how the person in the video moves their hands to hold and chop the potato. Then practice chopping a potato, copying the actions in the video. Do it again, watch and copy as often as you need.
Imagine yourself doing the action whilst watching it. Imagine that you are the person in the video. As you watch the video, try to imagine the feeling of moving your hands to hold and chop a potato. Then, practice chopping a potato and copying the actions in the video. Do it again, watch while imagining the feeling, and copy as often as you need.

Top tips for chopping vegetables

As well as watching the videos, follow our top tips for chopping vegetables:

Always ask an adult to supervise when practicing this skill
Ask an adult to cut the vegetable in half first and put the flat side down on the plate
Cooked vegetables are softer and easier to cut so you might want to practice on these first
Make an arch with your hand when holding the vegetables and cut between the arch to keep your fingers safe
Try using the same technique with other vegetables
Try our vegetable peeling video for help with peeling vegetables

Note: These movement demonstration videos have been designed to help children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD; dyspraxia) learn how to chop vegetables successfully. The videos show a movement demonstration for chopping a potato, performed by a typically developing child model and recorded from a first-person viewpoint. A qualified occupational therapist instructed the child model how to perform the movement demonstration to ensure that an appropriate technique was demonstrated. The videos are free for use by dyspraxic people, parents, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, teachers, or anybody else who would find them useful for supporting the learning of food preparation skills in children with dyspraxia/DCD. Chopping vegetables Dyspraxia Movement Skills.