Eating, writing, and dressing are just a few common tasks for which your child must control small hand muscles. These abilities are known as fine motor skills. When given a chance to exercise these abilities, your child can take on additional tasks alone. It prepares them for more complex tasks and abilities. Giving your child opportunities to practice their fine motor skills at home is the best way to help them develop them.

What are Fine Motor Skills?

When a child starts to use the smallest muscle structures in their fingers, wrists, hands, and feet, they begin to acquire fine motor skills. Actions like gripping, holding, pressing, or utilizing a pincer grip are part of developing those muscles. A pincer grip is holding something between the forefinger and thumb.

The little muscles of our hands, wrists, fingers, feet, and toes are key in fine motor skills. Small muscular actions necessitate cognitive coordination between the activity and what your child is observing. Things like using a pencil while writing or holding a fork while eating are influenced by fine motor abilities.

What Activities Help Develop Fine Motor Skills?

Games and Toys

Many toys, particularly those for newborns and toddlers, help kids develop their fine motor abilities. Puzzles and board games featuring pick-up-and-move pieces are excellent for teaching these skills. For instance, a strategy game like Jenga emphasizes pincer grip fine motor abilities, which are needed for writing.

Play-dough

Children can experiment and develop fine motor skills through tactile play with playdough. You might make the play dough along with your child before they use it to make it even more engaging.

Coloring and Drawing

When you sketch with your child using chalk, markers, crayons, or colored pencils, you can assist them in developing their fine motor skills. Scribbling is acceptable for improving these skills, and drawings do not have to be perfect.

Build With Lego and Blocks

You can connect, stack, and construct objects with Lego and building blocks. These exercises promote small pulling and pushing motions. Lego is excellent for encouraging imagination as well. Your child will improve and exercise their fine motor skills by building with LEGO. Children who build with LEGOs or pick them up will develop stronger hand muscles and better coordination. It helps them develop other abilities, like learning to wield a pencil and write. Children can also develop a sense of success, persistence, and a better ability to solve challenges by playing with Legos.

For more on helping your child build fine motor skills, visit Scalliwags Child Care at our office in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Call (781) 328-1616 to enroll your child or learn more about our services.