Scientific research shows that eating with chopsticks can promote the intellectual development of children and make them smarter! The Chinese use chopsticks to eat, which is an event worthy of pride and promotion in the history of human civilization.
Dr. Tsung-Dao Lee, a famous physicist and Nobel laureate, once gave high praise to chopsticks. He said: "Such simple two things, but they ingeniously apply the principle of physics lever. They are the extension of human fingers. What fingers can do, they can do... Westerners probably didn't invent knives and forks until the 16th or 17th century, but how can knives and forks compare with chopsticks!"
A family doctor in the United States has recently also included the use of chopsticks as one of the 21 skills that babies must learn.
In Japan, learning to use chopsticks has long been an early childhood education measure, and it is also stipulated that August 4th of each year is "Chopsticks Day".
Domestic scholars once investigated 72 children from 50 families of different levels, asking parents to recall when their children started using chopsticks for meals. It was found that among the 72 children, 9 started using chopsticks very early, and later, 5 of them went to university, 3 went to junior colleges, 8 of them worked in technical professions, and 1 did ordinary work; among the remaining 63 who started using chopsticks relatively late, they only entered ordinary middle schools, and 59 of them engaged in ordinary work. Therefore, it can be seen that there is a close relationship between starting to use chopsticks early or late and the intellectual development of children.
So, what benefits does using chopsticks have for babies?
One, Using chopsticks can strengthen fine motor skills
Chopsticks are the best props for using all five fingers.
Chopsticks use the principle of leverage to pick up food. It's not just the activity of 5 fingers, but also the movement of more than 30 large and small joints in various parts such as shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers, etc., and more than 50 muscles in places like the upper arm, forearm, palm, and fingers. These hand joints and muscles can only complete the action of picking up food with chopsticks under the command of the brain's central nervous system.
Using chopsticks three times a day is a good opportunity for children to exercise hand functions. This explains why babies who use chopsticks earlier have stronger manual abilities.
Using chopsticks can not only help babies improve coordination and fine motor skills, but also encourage babies to try new foods.
Two, Promote visual development and hand-eye coordination
Actually, before using chopsticks to pick up food, the eyes' visual positioning is indispensable, which means both eyes focus on the same target, then fuse the images obtained separately into a single complete image with three-dimensional space. This process may seem simple, but it requires the balance and coordination of the extraocular muscles of both eyes, the common visual direction of the macular fovea of the retina, and the perfect fusion mechanism of imaging by the cerebral cortex center, which is definitely not achieved overnight!
Therefore, frequent use of chopsticks can promote visual development, and is greatly helpful in preventing strabismus and amblyopia!
Three, Promote intellectual development and enhance creativity
As mentioned earlier, using chopsticks relies on the fine movements of the hands and the visual positioning of the eyes, but more importantly, it cannot be separated from the regulation and correction of the brain through neural reflexes, namely hand-brain and eye-brain reflexes. From the perspective of the division of labor in various areas of the cerebral cortex, the region controlling hand and eye muscle activities is much larger than other muscle movement regions. Muscle activities stimulate brain cells, which helps with the development of children's brains, thereby playing a role in strengthening the brain and enhancing intelligence.
Chopsticks are not merely dining utensils. Not only do the movements of each finger when using chopsticks give a lot of stimulation to the brain, but also "the delicate hand movements used when using chopsticks as a child stimulate the brain, which is very helpful for brain development."
Four, Lay the foundation for holding pens and writing
According to observations, babies learning to use chopsticks flexibly at an early stage have a positive impact on later quickly learning how to hold pens.
Since the finger techniques for using chopsticks are the same as those for holding pens, persistently using smart learning chopsticks will allow the baby to understand the positions of each finger, naturally leading to correct writing posture.
When children reach the age of two or three, they are no longer satisfied with eating with a small spoon. They like to imitate adults' eating actions and have the desire to use chopsticks. As parents, we should take advantage of this and guide the baby to eat with chopsticks.