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Fine motor skills involve the use of small muscles in hands, wrists and feet to perform fine movements such as holding and using a pencil. Children start to develop these muscles from a young age as they pinch and grasp objects and move them around, and it’s important for them to master these skills so they can complete tasks independently. Read on for 5 great activities you can do with your child to strengthen their fine motor skills from a nursery in Kensington.
Baking and cooking
Give your child the opportunity to use a variety of different utensils when they’re helping you bake a cake or prepare ingredients for a meal. They can assist with weighing and measuring things, and activities like flattening dough with a rolling pin or mixing flour and sugar together. This will involve the use of small muscles in their hands and wrists to perform different actions.
Water and sand play
Fill up an outside water table and give your child a variety of different sized cups to play with. Pouring water from one cup to another will strengthen their hand-eye coordination and small hand muscles. You could also let them play with sponges or rubber toys which they can squeeze water out of. If the weather isn’t very nice they can do this in the bath. Alternatively you could give your child some sand or rice which they can also scoop up and pour out.
Arts and crafts
Activities like drawing and painting will help develop your child’s fine motor skills as they’ll learn to use and control different tools like crayons, chalk and paint brushes. You could also get them involved in some finger painting or scratch art so they use different muscles and learn how to control a variety of movements. Giving your child some kid-friendly scissors and encouraging them to cut shapes out of paper is also a great way to strengthen fine motor skills.
Building activities
Activities like building with blocks or creating models out of lego encourage small pushing, pulling and twisting movements. Your child will learn to pick small pieces up with a fine pincer grasp and place them where they want them to go, which develops both fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
Puzzles and games
Any game that requires your child to pick up small pieces and put them together or move them somewhere is great for strengthening small muscles and developing fine movements. Puzzles are a great option, as are operation-type games where children have to use tweezers to pick up tiny objects and place them somewhere else.