Hello readers,
Happy Sunday!
Fine motor skills are vital and should be developed when children are lacking in them. Fine motor skills are the small muscles that control the hands, fingers and thumb. Without fine motor skills children may struggle writing, zipping up their jackets, picking up small objects, feeding themselves, developing hand eye co ordination and creative activities. Without fine motor skills children may struggle to perform self care routines resulting in a lack of confidence. With the support of an adult, fine motor skills can be developed by providing activities and resources to do so. it is important to remember that children may not be able to complete these activities first time without practice which may cause upset and frustration to the child. As an adult we must remember children are not born to know how to do things they have to be taught and shown. To strengthen these muscle children can be given activities which build the fine motor muscles, below are some activities on how to do this.
1. Threading pasta - Using a pipe cleaner or some wool, provide your child with raw pasta and show them how to thread the pasta on to the wool/ string. Sit next to your child and let them watch you thread the pasta to the wool. Guide your child's hands when they attempt to thread the pasta on the wool/string. (make this exciting by using food colouring to colour the pasta).
2. Cutting - There are children's scissors which support fine motor skills. Give your child scissors and paper and allow them to cut the paper as much as they like. children will be using their muscles to move the scissors , it is here where the fine motor develops.
3. Tweezer play - Give your child a pair of tweezers or kitchen tongs and provide items such as pompoms , bottle tops , small round balls and raw pasta. Show your child how to hold the tweezers correctly and show them the tweezers are their to pick up the items.
4. Playdough! - Playdough is a brilliant way to develop fine motor skills. You can give your child playdough where they can practicing rolling it flat with a rolling pin or rolling it into small balls using their fingers. Give your child raw spaghetti , encourage them to break the spaghetti up themselves and make imprints in the playdough with it. St with your child with some playdough and stretch the playdough out with your child, encouraging them to do it to. Tell your child to pat the playdough in their hands making it flat, here they are using there finger muscles to flatten the playdough.
5. Picking up pompoms. - Here your child is encourage to use pincer grip to pick up the balls using their finger tips. You can get your child to sort the pompoms into colour groups, whatever colour pompoms you have , use coloured bowls (if you have them) or coloured paper for your child to drop the pompom in/on.
6. Beads on spaghetti. Provide beads for your child to pick up and drop onto the hard spaghetti. Your child can pick up the beads using their finger and thumb, using hand eye co ordination to put the bead onto the spaghetti.
7. Thread and reals. These resources can be available online. Your child will hold the thread or lace, and practice pushing the end through the holes on the real. Pincer grip and hand eye co ordination is developed here.
8. Ear bud painting. Provide your child with paints and earbuds. Your child will be holding the ear bud between the finger and thumb, dabbing into the chosen colour and paint with bud. You can give your child a picture template or plain paper to create what picture they like.
9. Pipe cleaners - Use a colander and pipe cleaners. Demonstrate to your child pushing the pipe cleaners through your upside down colander. This is a fun activity where concentration is needed.
10. Lego or mega blocks play. Encourage your child to stack the blocks on top of each other and taking them apart. This requires attention and will keep your child's imagination going as they can build any structure they wish to.
All of these activities require adult supervision.
Happy Exploring
Love Mamma x
#finemotorskills #playdough #development #fun #control
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