We did some spoonloading from somewhere around 10-11 months (first time we'd used a spoon for anything) and that worked sometimes but sometimes not. Like you, there was a lot of waving it around, banging in on the tray, and throwing it on the floor and it took awhile for her to understand she had to give it back to me so I could give her some more. From maybe around a year, she started to feed herself yogurt with a spoon sometimes (I still had to help a bit in guiding her hand or positioning the bowl so she could get it), though she still prefers hands to spoon. Maybe about a month ago (13 months) I bought a little cutlery set and gave her the fork to use. I've found forks actually work a lot better than spoons. She can stab things a lot more successfully than she can scoop. I still sometimes have to stab things for her ('fork load' lol) and she still uses her other hand to eat with too, but she uses the fork on her own now nearly ever dinner. I found really it was just a matter of giving it to her to play around with and then she worked it out mostly on her own. I don't think she'll be using it with much precision for awhile yet, but she at least understands the concept and is getting some practice. I think give it a try. If nothing else, it's something else fun to play with.
