# The fruit wash

You wash a piece of fruit in a bowl of water, then they copy you: dip it, rub it and dry it.

To do with your toddler between 18 and 24 months. It works on: fine motor skills, imitation and touch. You'll need: 2-3 pieces of fruit, bowl and soft cotton or microfibre cloth.

## What do I need?

- 2-3 pieces of fruit
- Bowl
- Soft cotton or microfibre cloth

## How do I do it?

1. **Set up the fruit wash.** Spread a towel on the floor or a low table and set a bowl with a little warm water on it. Add 2 or 3 whole, unpeeled pieces of fruit you'll eat soon, like apples, pears or oranges.
2. **You go first.** Sit beside your little one and go slowly so they can watch. Dip a piece of fruit in the water, rub it with your hands, take it out and dry it with the cloth.
3. **Hand them a piece.** Give them another piece of fruit and let them wash it their way. If it slips out of their hands, that's fine: they can fish it out of the water again.
4. **Stay close, no rush.** Stay with them while they dip, rub and dry the fruit for as long as they like. There's no need to correct them; seeing how you do it is enough.
5. **Finish at the table.** When they get tired or start splashing more than washing, carry the fruit to the table together. Thank them: “Thanks for washing the fruit. Now it's clean and ready to eat.”

## What are they learning?

Washing fruit is a real job they see you do at home, and here they do it with you: dip, rub and dry before eating. Wet fruit is slippery, so they keep changing their grip so it doesn't slip away.

- **Fine motor skills**: Holds and rubs the wet fruit, adjusting their grip so it doesn't slip
- **Imitation**: Repeats the steps they've seen you do: dip, rub and dry
- **Touch**: Feels the warm water, the smooth skin of the fruit and the dry cloth

## What the research says

- Gerber RJ, Wilks T, Erdie-Lalena C. Developmental milestones: motor development. Pediatrics in Review. 2010;31(7):267-277. doi:10.1542/pir.31-7-267 (https://doi.org/10.1542/pir.31-7-267)
- Rochat P. Object manipulation and exploration in 2- to 5-month-old infants. Developmental Psychology. 1989;25(6):871-884. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.25.6.871 (https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.25.6.871)
- Barr R, Dowden A, Hayne H. Developmental changes in deferred imitation by 6- to 24-month-old infants. Infant Behavior and Development. 1996;19(2):159-170. doi:10.1016/S0163-6383(96)90015-6 (https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-6383(96)90015-6)
- Carpenter M, Nagell K, Tomasello M. Social cognition, joint attention, and communicative competence from 9 to 15 months of age. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. 1998;63(4):1-143. doi:10.2307/1166214 (https://doi.org/10.2307/1166214)
- Bremner AJ, Spence C. The development of tactile perception. Advances in Child Development and Behavior. 2017;52:227-268. doi:10.1016/bs.acdb.2016.12.002 (https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.acdb.2016.12.002)
- Miguel HO, Gonçalves ÓF, Cruz S, Sampaio A. Infant brain response to affective and discriminative touch: A longitudinal study using fNIRS. Social Neuroscience. 2019;14(5):571.

Reviewed by Javier Atance Ibar, PhD in Education.

https://papakoala.com/en-gb/activities/the-fruit-wash/