Fine motor skills refer to the small movements that we make with our hands, fingers, and wrists. These are important for children to develop because they are necessary for tasks such as writing, drawing, and using scissors.
There are many benefits to working on fine motor skills with young children:
Improved hand-eye coordination: Developing fine motor skills helps children improve their hand-eye coordination, which is important for tasks such as catching a ball or using a fork and knife.
Increased independence: As children's fine motor skills improve, they become more independent and are able to complete tasks such as getting dressed and brushing food on their own.
Enhanced learning and school readiness: Children who have developed fine motor skills are better able to complete tasks that are required in the classroom, such as writing and using scissors, which can improve their overall learning and school readiness.
Improved social skills: Fine motor skills activities often involve working with others, which can improve children's social skills and ability to work as part of a team.
Increased self-esteem: As children learn new skills and become more independent, their self-esteem and confidence often improve.
There are many ways to work on fine motor skills with young children, including activities such as play dough, puzzles, beading, and colouring. It's important to choose activities that are age-appropriate and challenging, but not frustrating, for the child. Which is where we can help 😉
]]>We know it's a bit of a hard one for our little people but threading is a fantastic skill to practise and here's why.
Let me put it as simply as I can - threading beads your child strengthens the small muscles in their hands. By picking them up and rotating them before threading they use different hand movements supporting their fine motor skills. It allows them to improve their visual perceptual skills by looking at the available beads and choosing which one they want to thread next. This is based on their mental image of how they want their creation to look like.
The same goes with threading wool through a hole punched paper plate or a wreath. They have to decide through which hole to thread. They use both hands, one to hold the paper plate and the second one-more dominant to thread the wool through the hole, then they have to turn the plate to pull the wool-hand-eye coordination.
Threading does not only improve fine motor skills but also contributes to learning mathematical concepts such as counting and sequencing. You can try to encourage your child to sequencing beads for example two reds, one blue, two reds, one blue. To help them remember, place a chosen sequence on the table in front of them. While working with the younger children I would put all the other colours away so they don't get distracted by all the other colours.
There are many different types of materials you can use for threading. Most common are beads but pasta, cut up straws, buttons, paper plates/wreaths with holes are all good. For the beginners and the very young ones, instead of using a string or wool I would recommend a pipe cleaner as it is more sturdy therefore easier for them to thread the item on it. That is how we started out with our 19 month old Iona whose concentration and patience surprised us all so much that we decided to keep a small set (a pipe cleaner and big beads) in the nappy bag as entertainment when in restaurants and cafes.
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Giving your child a paintbrush or asking them to pick up a pompom with a peg provides them with a great opportunity to use their pincer grasp so necessary in handwriting. The process of stamping or painting with a paintbrush strengthens your little one’s fingers and allows them to practise hand-eye coordination.
Plus dipping their painting tool in paint, holding paper down or an item with a less dominant hand and stamping/painting with the other is a bilateral activity; moreover creating a design or pattern awakens creativity.
If you're feeling brave you can also use a wide surface area and large painting tools. For example:
Painting on large surfaces supports gross motor skills -larger muscles of their body. Efficient control of them in the neck, shoulder and trunk is necessary to keep stability in order for the fingers and hands to move to do handwriting. A good development of gross motor skills helps mastering balancing, sports and dancing.
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With younger children, we need to ask ourselves whether our child is left or right handed. Then make we have to make sure we have the right type of scissors. If your child is still at the stage of swapping hands then I would recommend starting with whichever scissors you have at home and observe how it goes.
I always make a point of not handing a pencil, crayon or scissors directly but put them in front of them and have them decide which hand they want to use for colouring/cutting.
Once they choose which hand they want to use, you might want to help them with placing the scissors correctly in their hand. Showing them using your scissors helps so they can see how you are holding them as well. Some children are very observant and they can figure it out just by watching you.
Secondly, cutting with scissors builds hand strength because by opening and closing them children build up the small muscles in their hands. It also develops their coordination to use both sides of their body at the same time: holding paper with one hand and cutting with the other. This is called “bilateral coordination” and helps with buttoning and zipping up coats.
Learning to use scissors requires a lot of practice so you should let them do cutting as often as possible. If your child is too young or doesn’t have the skills to cut the template out just yet, make sure you give them some scrap paper to practise while you are helping out.
Thirdly, using scissors develops hand- eye coordination where they learn to watch where they are cutting and use their eyes to guide how they should move next. Mastering this skill is helpful in playing sports, cooking and everyday life.
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