I was just thinking that too.. i think they recommend giving foods with lumps etc from about 8/9 mths.. but still mashed, but baby can have soft finger foods too. from 1 yr-ish they can have family stuff if appropriate. Paris is at the stage where sometimes she has family meals, and sometimes she will have mashed up veges (she likes them that way) with fish fingers, mince, or aria farm meat chips. depends on time and suitability of what we are having ourselves.
if you mean feeding themselves.. you can probably give baby another spoon and let her experiment, but still feed her yourself. we taught paris the concept of "help", and that way if she needs help, or if we are in a hurry, we can "help" feed her without her going bonkers at us.
I think that's covered it.