I do wonder what the age difference is in starting to use utensils in different countries. Chop sticks obviously take more skill to use than a fork therefore children learn to use them later on. I found it interesting that my Chinese friends’ children, who are under 3, still use their hands to eat. My baby boy has always copied us and has been using a fork and spoon for months. He tries to use chop sticks, but I’m afraid he’s going to hurt himself. I’m slightly inclined to buy him a shorter set without points, but he’s still a little young. Though my son started very early, his doctor expected utensil usage by 15 months.
My inlaws don’t eat with forks therefore they aren’t inclined to give baby a fork. If they do remember a utensil, it’s usually a spoon.
Today we had noodles for dinner and I couldn’t figure out how baby was going to eat them with a spoon. I went to get his fork and told Baba that you can’t eat noodles with a spoon!
He replied, “you can’t eat noodles with a fork either!”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Can’t teach what you don’t know.
Teaching to use utensils
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Shandongxifu's Blog 
It is interesting to see how often other people can’t even imagine how the world works in other countries, for example my parents can’t imagine life with chopsticks at all while my in-laws in China were shocked that even little kids use fork and knife in Europe.
Three years and still eating with hands? At least my wife’s little cousin was eating with chopsticks when I saw her for the first time (she was about 2 1/2 years old). She wasn’t good at it but still she tried
You can also get chopsticks that are connected at the top. It’s what little kids learn to eat with here if they’ll use chopsticks a lot.
My step-daughter used a spoon until she was ready for chopsticks. I think she mastered chopsticks between the ages of 4 and 5. She used shorter ones at first.
My son is now 15 months and my mother-in-law doesn’t like him eating with his hands (too dirty, I guess) so she spoon feeds him. I like to let him eat with his hands and sometimes practice with a spoon.
Your blog posts are so amusing! Please, please, please keep writing! I would love to read some more 🙂
I teach kindergarten in Korea, and some of our students still use training chopsticks, even though they are about 6 years old… We’ve been trying to ween them off of them because at their age, they are expected to be able to use them. It’s interesting how cultures think about their utensils. I got complimented in Japan for being able to use chopsticks even though I don’t hold them correctly, but that’s because Japanese people always remark about a foreigner using chopsticks or eating Japanese food…