Carving a pumpkin
creates a great way for children to work on their occupational, physical, and
speech-language skills through the use of a fun task right at home. Skills
including gross motor, fine motor, visual motor, speech, social skills,
decision making, bilateral coordination, imagination and creativity are all
skills that are used while carving a pumpkin.
Choosing a pumpkin creates an opportunity for a child to use
their decision making skills and their social skills. If they are given the
opportunity to choose a pumpkin on their own it creates an environment where
they not only will have to weigh the options of which pumpkin to pick, but they
will also be using their independence to pick out their pumpkin, and to be
confident in their selection. Picking out a pumpkin also allows you (or others)
to have a conversation with your child to get them speaking. Language such as
“shall we get the big pumpkin or the little pumpkin?” and, “Which one do you
want?” gives children the opportunity to interact and describe which size and
look of pumpkin they would like. They
are also given the chance to use their gross motor skills through this process
by picking up pumpkins, pushing them around, and carrying them to the car.
After a child has made the decision on which pumpkin they
would like to carve, they need to clean out the inside of the pumpkin. Tactile
input can be incorporated by using their hands to clean out the pumpkin, as the
guts are cold and squishy. Then bilateral skills and upper body strength can be
incorporated by holding the pumpkin with one hand and using a spoon to scrape
with the other hand. You can incorporate speech by asking them to describe how
the insides of the pumpkin feel to them. Do they feel slimy or squishy? Are
they cold or warm?
Fine motor skills are incorporated when drawing on the
pumpkin to decide where to cut out for the eyes, nose and mouth. This also is
another opportunity for the child to use their imagination and creativity,
along with decision making. Depending on the age of a child you might want to
do the cutting yourself and let them watch, but overall the end result will be
that your child put to use many of their skills to get to the end point of
carving a pumpkin, and they can be proud of the results too!
