Encouraging your baby to select picnic food

What you need 

• Picnic items, such as a blanket, plates, cups, cutlery and food (either real snacks or pretend ones) 

What to do 

1. Set up a picnic by placing your blanket or a piece of fabric on the floor, this could be inside or outside.  
2. Lay out plates and snacks.  
3. Say to your baby that you’re having a picnic and you’d like them to put food onto the plates. 
4. Point to a plate and say, “What food shall we put here?”  
5. If your baby doesn’t look at the plate, give it a jiggle to attract their attention. You could say, “Oh this plate is empty, what could go on there? Maybe a piece of apple?” 
6. Your baby might look towards the food and pick something out.  
7. Encourage them to place the food on the plate. 
8. When they do, give lots of praise! 

Good to know 

It’ll take a lot of practice for your baby to understand what is expected from them, so you can be delighted with any action that your baby makes with the picnic.  

Watch to see if they look towards something before picking it up. When they do, give lots of encouragement. You might say, “Oh wow, I saw that you wanted the apple, and you got it. That’s brilliant.”