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physical Growth

Fine Motor Activities

What are Fine Motor skills?

Fine motor skills are the ability to make movements using the small muscles in our hands and wrists.

Fine motor skills are complex.

They involve a coordinated effort between the brain and muscles.

They are built on the gross motor skills that let us make bigger movements, like running or jumping.

Fine motor skills involve the use of the smaller muscle of the hands, commonly in activities like using pencils, scissors, construction with lego or duplo, doing up buttons and opening lunch boxes.

Why are fine motor skills important?

Fine motor skills involve small muscles working with the brain and nervous system to control movements in areas such as the hands, fingers, lips, tongue and eyes.

Developing fine motor skills helps children do things like eating, writing, manipulating objects and getting dressed.

A baby uses their fingers and thumbs to pick things up.

An older child will use their fine motor skills for actions like pulling up a zip or using scissors to cut up paper.

These important skills will contribute to a child’s development and independence across all areas of learning.

What skills do ‘fine motor skills’ include?

  • Pencil skills (scribbling, colouring, drawing, writing)
  • Scissors skills (cutting)
  • Play
  • Construction skills using lego, duplo, puzzles, train tracks
  • Doll dressing and manipulation
  • IT use (e.g. mouse and stylus manipulation)
  • Self care including
    dressing – tying shoelaces, doling up sandals, zips, buttons, belts
    eating – using cutlery, opening lunch boxes and food bags
    hygiene – cleaning teeth, brushing hair, toileting.

Note: Visual perception (accurately using vision, ‘seeing’ and interpreting) is not strictly a fine motor skill but directly supports fine motor skill performance.

How can you tell if a child has fine motor skill difficulties at a glance?

  • Avoidance and/or disinterest of fiddly finger skills
  • Preferring physical activity (again to avoid sit down tasks)
  • Interest in ‘passive’ activities such as watching TV, that don’t require Fine Motor skills
  • No interest in pencil or scissors skills
  • Being ‘bossy’ in play and and asking others to “draw a cat for me”
  • Not persisting in the face of a challenge (e.g. asking parents to fix a problem without physically trying to fix it themselves)
  • Waiting for parents to dress them or clean their teeth rather than trying themselves

Fine motor tips & strategies

HAND STRENGTH

Put items in containers to encourage your child to open containers throughout the day.

HAND STRENGTH 2

Encourage activities that strengthen hand muscles, such as squeezing stress balls, playing with clay, or using tweezers to pick up small objects.

GRASP

Use tongs to help pick up items during mealtimes.

FINGER ISOLATION

Encourage your child to engage in activities that involve finger isolation, such as picking up small objects with thumb and finger, to enhance fine motor precision.

DEXTERITY

Play boardgames that require rolling of the dice, moving small manipulatives, or dealing playing cards.

DEXTERITY 2

Encourage your child to practice self-help skills, such as buttoning their own shirt or tying their shoelaces, to foster independence and strengthen fine motor abilities.

Fine motor activities

Peeling and Placing Stickers

Place stickers on your child’s hands or clothing and have them peel them off. For an added challenge, take a piece of paper and draw open circles to give your child targets in which to place the stickers.

The grasp required to peel a sticker works toward the pincer grasp required for manipulating a button.

The visual motor coordination required for placing the sticker within a target works toward the visual motor coordination required for inserting the button within a hole.

Ripping or Crumpling Paper

Create a mosaic craft by ripping paper into small pieces.

This activity works on strengthening the small muscles of the hand and promotes the bimanual use of a tripod grasp, similar to what is required to unsnap the snaps of a jacket.

Placing Coins in a container

Picking up the coins encourages the use of a pincer grasp and orienting them to the slot of the lid of the container requires visual motor coordination, similar to buttoning.

Increase the challenge by first sorting and stacking the coins, which would require a precision grasp around the edges of the coin and visual perceptual skills to identify matches based on size.

This is similar to identifying and placing the top of the toothpaste tube or water bottle.

Attach Clothespins to Board Books

A favourite fine motor activity is to use a preferred board book and have your child attach clothespins  to the book to create “legs” for the characters and have the book stand up.

This one is always a lot of fun!

Attach Clothespins to Clothing

Another similar idea is to attach the clothespins to your child’s clothing and have them try to locate and remove them.

Increase the challenge by doing this without the use of a mirror, addressing body awareness that supports independent dressing.

The opening and closing of the hand as you squeeze and release the clothespins is a precursor for the motion and strength required for opening and closing a scissor.

Bonus points if your child uses his thumb on one side of the clothespin and index and middle finger on the other side of the clothespin.

With this finger placement, you’re working towards a mature pencil grasp.

Chalk

Chalk is an inexpensive tool that can help your child build fine motor skills.

Drawing on the driveway will help your child build hand and finger strength and improve coordination while stimulating creativity at the same time.

The bonding, laughing, and fresh air don’t hurt either!

Threading and Lacing

Laces and beads can form the basis of an activity that encourages bilateral integration and concentration.

By slowly threading laces through the beads, your child will be boosting muscle memory, which will make similar everyday tasks easier to complete.

Start with larger beads and then gradually make them smaller as they become more adept.

Mix up the threading challenge by threading Cheerios on pipe cleaners or on yarn.

Making Putty Figures

Putty is an effective tool to develop hand and finger strength.

You can add putty to your fine motor skill activity list whether your child is only capable of squeezing the putty in their hands to alter the shape or can use their fingertips to sculpt specific shapes and figures.

Try rolling balls, making snakes, and hiding coins or beads inside to increase the fine motor strengthening challenge.

Pick Up Sticks

Pick up sticks is a classic game where sticks are scattered on a tabletop or other hard surface and players are required to pick them up carefully one stick at a time.

Focus on improving finger isolation by encouraging your child to use the index finger and thumb for one round, the middle finger, and thumb for the next, and so on.

Popping Bubbles

Bubbles – an ultimate child favourite – are a great and easy way to add fine motor fun to your day.

Just blow some bubbles and have your child visually track them and reach out to grab them before they float away.

Your child can poke them with one finger at a time, pinch them with a couple of fingers, or grab them with their entire hand.

Sorting Coins or Beads

Coin and bead sorting will help develop hand and finger strength and teach your child how to identify different items and group them together.

For this activity, you can place several coins and/or multi-coloured beads in a container, in a box, or on a table and have your child pick up and sort them based on the type of coin or bead colour.

Ice cube trays make great sorting containers.

Fine Motor Precision Activities

The next few ideas specifically encourage fine motor precision, which is defined as the hand’s ability to coordinate an efficient and targeted movement of the hands with a precise goal in mind.

Fine motor precision is engrained in our everyday activities, such as being able to button a shirt, put earrings on, being able to write words right on a line, being able to stab a small piece of food with a fork, etc.

 

  • Mazes
  • Beads
  • Cutting on a line
  • Using glue on a precise target for an art project
  • Putting pegs into a pegboard
  • Engaging in puzzles

FINE MOTOR STRENGTH ACTIVITIES

Some activities to improve fine motor strength, which is the ability to generate an appropriate amount of strength in the hand to accomplish a functional task.

 

  • Using syringes and eye droppers for art projects
  • Picking up items with tweezers, clothesline pins, or kitchen tongs
  • Using a hole puncher for art activities
  • Finding leaves outside, using them as a stencil placed below a piece of paper, and using the appropriate amount of strength to colour over to create an indent of the leaves’ shape
  • Making something out of dough, such as pizza or cookies
  • Painting with a squirt bottle or squirting down a tower of cups
  • Building marshmallow sculptures

FINE MOTOR GAMES

  • Playing with LEGOs
  • Creating pictures with a Lego
  • Playing Connect 4
  • Uno
  • Kerplunk
  • Jenga
  • Operation