Helping your child develop their fine motor skills

Fine motor skills are the skills responsible for the basic movements we make every day. From doing up our blouse buttons to tying the laces of our shoes. Fine motor skills allow the smaller muscles found in our wrists, hands, feet fingers and toes to coordinate movements such as pressing, holding and gripping. We have worked with a boarding school in Wales to share tips on how you can help your child to develop fine motor skills.

Play Putty

Introducing putty such as Play Dough into playtime can help your child to practice using their smaller hand muscle to squeeze, roll and pinch the dough. Not only does this allow for tactical play but allows for your child to exercise their creativity.

Using Craft Scissors

To use scissors a lot of unique movements are needed, and craft scissors can help your child to practice precisely that. This will strengthen your child’s fine motor skills and is a great way to improve your child’s hand-eye coordination. Just ensure that scissors are child safe and that they are supervised when using them.

Colouring in and Painting

Similar to cutting, colouring and painting require a lot of hand-eye coordination to avoid colouring outside the lines. This is particularly useful in building the motor skills needed to hold a colouring crayon or make brush strokes with a paintbrush. Always ensure that paints are child safe before using to avoid any adverse effects.

Squeezy Bath Toys

Turn bath time into fun time with rubber toys that your child will love. Squishy toys like rubber ducks also help to build fine motor skills by encouraging motions such as pressing and gripping.

Threading with Beads

Carefully threading bead holes is a job for very nimble fingers and coordination. Try this with your child using string, beads, pipe cleaners or even pasta.

Thanks for reading xxx