Fine motor skills are a big part of a child’s development in helping them become a lot more comfortable with their hands and fingers. There are many different activities you can build on with your child from when they’re a baby through to toddler and infant age. Here are 5 that this nursery in London recommends.
1. Arts and crafts
A classic for kids is using different arts and crafts to test how your child can pick up different tools, like a paintbrush or a colouring pencil. These are great for helping a child learn to love making lots of lovely creations from a brush stroke or a drawing they’ve made.
2. Swimming
Overall, swimming targets almost all areas of a child’s body, but it will benefit a child’s fine motor skills as well. Pushing through the water and learning to float comes in the hand motions your child will learn to make as they get more used to the water.
3. Handwriting
A good way to improve your child’s handwriting is through repetition. There’s a lot to writing by hand on a regular basis, and helps your child gain strength in grasping items. Holding onto a pen can take a lot or practice from a young age and is important to work on each week.
4. Teaching your child to tie their shoes
A lot of kids are going to have to move away from doing up their shoes by using velcro. Lacing up shoes is going to be the next stage in your child’s development. You can buy a lace up game to let children practice tying them up as many times as they want to, or they can practice on a pair of your shoes.
5. Modelling clay
Play dough is a good way for children to muck around with something that’s relatively safe, and can make all kinds of shapes through hands and fingers. It’s often the perfect place for children to start enjoying unstructured play, and makes them feel a lot more comfortable in their motor skill abilities.
