Fine motor skills are a crucial part of development as they enable children to control movements in areas such as the hands, fingers, mouth and eyes and impact independence across all areas of their life. Developing fine motor skills helps children do things like eating, writing, manipulating objects and getting dressed. Young children need many opportunities to develop fine motor skills alongside gross motor skills so that they can improve their independence and explore the world around them. We have a blog post all about fine motor skills here, and also a blog post about the importance of the Cool Characters programme to develop them here.
So, what sorts of activities can we engage young children in early years settings with?
- Playdough
- Rolling, squishing, and shaping playdough helps to strengthen the muscles in the hands and also supports the development of finger control.
- You can also use platforms such as YouTube to find playdough videos that children can watch and follow along.
- Bead Threading
- Stringing beads onto laces or string can improve hand-eye coordination and also the development of the pincer grip. Ensure that children are monitored carefully when using beads.
- Children could take this one step further by using chunky tweezers to pick up the beads which helps build their grip strength and coordination.
- Cutting with Scissors
- Cutting paper and other materials can really help children with their precision and coordination.
- Start with drawing simple lines for them to cut, then perhaps draw waves, and finally move on to trickier templates to cut such as zig zags or shapes.
- Building with Small Blocks (e.g., LEGO or wooden blocks)
- Stacking and connecting blocks or bricks can support fine motor development as well as spatial awareness for children.
- Mark-Making
- Drawing, tracing, or scribbling with crayons, pencils, pens, chalk (the list is nearly endless!) can support the development of writing skills and also strengthens their pencil grip which will be important for KS1.
- Encouraging children to draw in different positions, e.g., lying down on their front or even their back (you could tape paper to the bottom of tables) can also be great for motor development.
If you would look further information on the development of fine motor skills, have a look at our training course (The Cool Characters Programme and Fine Motor Skills) which was written and delivered by children’s Occupational Therapist Roz Roscoe.
