We use fine motor skills for just about everything, from using our phones to eating. They are such an important part of day to day life and children start to develop them from as early as a few months old. Throughout their childhood it’s important to provide them with plenty of opportunities to practise and strengthen the skills. In this blog post which we’ve created with a private nursery in Hampshire, we share a few ways that you can do just that.
Introduce Them to Musical Instruments
Music is a great way for children to explore their creativity. They can experiment with different sounds and create rhythms that they like. It also helps them with their fine motor skills as many involve careful finger movements, like strumming and tapping. Other instruments may need to be held, like drumsticks which can help children to also work on their gripping.
Arts and Crafts
If you don’t mind the mess, arts and crafts are also an excellent way to help children with their hand eye coordination. Painting for instance involves making careful brush strokes which can help children work on their precision and hand movements.
Bath Toys
You can also incorporate a few activities into their daily routine, like bath time for example where you can introduce squeezy bath toys. These will keep them occupied while you try to bathe them and working on their smaller muscles.
Play Dough
Other toys include play dough. It’s squishy, fun and can help children with their sensory development. There is lots that they can create and it can be moulded again and again for endless fun.
Have a Rice Race
If you’re looking for a game, you can create a fun competition with rice, a stopwatch and two empty bowls. A rice race involves exactly what you think it would. It’s a competition to see who can move rice from one bowl to another the fastest. This can be done with fingers or tweezers but must be done one grain at a time.
Leave Them to Their Own Devices
Children are constantly touching things, putting them in their mouth and experimenting in their own way to learn about the world around them. They will be bound to find opportunities to practise their fine motor skills at home as there are opportunities all around us. Letting your child decide on a play activity and use their imagination is what we call unstructured play. It is great for helping children with their cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development and can help children with forming their own ideas.
Gardening
Gardens are just as likely to have things for them to work on. Planting teaches children about nature and how plant life comes about. It also can help them to strengthen their fine motor skills as they must pick up seeds and place them firmly into the ground, as well as water and feed them their food.
Tidying Up
Something as mundane as tidying up can help children with their gripping, pinching and other fine motor skills. They must pick up individual items like their toys, hold them and put them away correctly. Aside from these particular skills, it teaches children to clean up after themselves and how to stay organised.
On a final note
These are just some of the ways that you can help your child to build on their fine motor skills. While children develop these early on, not all children develop at their own pace. If you notice that your child is struggling with any of the activities above, it may be beneficial to speak with a professional for their expert opinion and advice.
