Fun Activities For Development of Fine Motor Skills

When children enter kindergarten, many poor fine motor habits have already been established.  I often see children gripping a pencil or writing instrument with more than three fingers.  The three-finger pencil grip is recommended for all children.  It is also very important that children write from top to bottom and left to write.  Encouraging your child to write this way makes it easier for them as they get older and writing activities increase.   It is also important to note that you cannot just present a child with a piece of writing paper and expect them to form the letters the correct way.  Instruction on the way to hold the pencil, position the paper, form the letters from top to bottom and left to right is critical.  I also recommend that you have your child practice scissor skills at home.  Provide paper with a variety of thickness and have your child cut on different types of lines (straight, curves etc.).  

Click on this link to create your very own handwriting worksheets!  Just type in the words you want to practice and then print up your own personalized worksheet.  Be sure to select "basic print."

www.handwritingworksheets.com

Fine motor resources can be found at the following two websites:

www.preschoolprintables.com

www.theraproducts.com

 

Activities to Promote a 3-Finger Grasp

  • Have child pop bubbles on packing material

  • Pinch clothespins open to attach to a surface

  • Use tweezers to pick up objects

  • Use eyedroppers to paint or collect/release water

  • Use squirt bottles to water flowers

  • Spinning tops

  • Geoboards

  • Pop beads

  • Pick up Sticks

  • Place coins in a piggy bank through the slot

  • Pick up coins/bingo chips and place through resistive container

  • Screw/unscrew tiny nuts and bolts

  • Wind up toys

  • Pegboard activities

  • Commercial games include: Lite Brite, Connect Four, Jenga, Bed Bugs, Operation, Kerplunk, Crocodile Dentist, Etch-a-Sketch, and Don't Spill the Beans

 

Bilateral Skills:

  • Playing with Playdoh.  Roll it into snakes, balls, letters, or tools to play with it including rolling pins, garlic press, etc.

  • Stringing beads, cereal, pasta, straws

  • Lacing cards

  • Lego's

  • Pop beads

  • Karate/Dancing

  • Carrying large objects (i.e. groceries, boxes, etc...that require child to use both hands)

  • Stabilizing paper with one hand while writing/cutting with other

  • Dressing skills (i.e. dress a doll, manage fasteners on clothing or on doll's clothes)

  • Playing catch with a large ball

  • Commercial games include:  Building sets (i.e. Lincoln Logs, Lego's, Bristle Blocks), Mr. Potato Head, Clay, Putty, and Dough

Cutting Skills:

  • Using tweezers to pick up objects

  • Plant sprayers

  • Tweezer scissors to pick up objects

  • Cutting a variety of materials including Playdoh, straws, papers with various thickness, sandpaper, corrugated paper

Prewriting/Handwriting Skills

There are many multi-sensory materials that can be used with children to practice formations of shapes, letters and numbers:

  • Shaving Cream

  • Pudding

  • Paint bags/hair gel bags

  • Sand/clay trays

  • Finger paint

  • Wikki Stix/ pipe cleaners to form shapes, letters or numbers

  • Make letters with Playdoh and then trace over with finger

  • Sponge paint letters

  • Magnadoodle

  • Dry erase/mini-chalkboards

  • Sidewalk chalk

  • Water painting

  • Rainbow painting

Compiled by:  Kelly Ryba

North Coast Therapy Associates, Inc.