Are you wondering if your preschooler is on target with their fine motor development? Do you worry about them acquiring the skills to write when they get to kindergarten? Guess what? There are many fun activities that you can do with your child to build these skills during play!! Embedding practice during play is the best way to learn any new skill! Below are just a few ideas for you to try with your preschooler!
If you have concerns that your child is delayed in this area consider consulting with a OT (occupational therapist) for further guidance. Most states have Early Intervention Agencies that can help! These agencies work with children under 3 and often provide their services for free. In addition, many school systems will provide screenings for preschoolers (3-5) to help identify children who may be at risk so contact your local one. If they can’t help they should be able to provide you with other local agencies that can!
Tips to build Fine Motor Skills:
1. Play dough- One of my favorite activities and rolling, cutting and manipulating play dough is a great way to strengthen those tiny hand muscles! If you are anything like me try not to freak out when your child mixes colors together lol!
2. Cooking – Have your child help as you cook! Mixing, measuring and pouring are useful skills to learn plus help improve fine motor skills! Want to combine 1. and 2. ? Find a recipe to make play dough with your child! Use food coloring to make it their favorite color!
3. Markers, crayons, pencils, chalk, paints – let your child explore with these materials on a variety of mediums (paper, canvas, the ground, cloth) and be flexible about if they want to stand, sit or lay on the floor! The idea is to let them enjoy using these materials so when it is time to transition to seated writing they are ready!
4. Games- There are lots of games around that work on fine motor skills (puzzles, Operation, Share a Berry, Dreaming Dragons). Your child will be having so much fun playing that they won’t realize that they are building these important skills.
5. Sand Play (beach, garden, sandbox) or Water play – How fun is it to dig in the dirt or to play with water? These fun activities are awesome for strengthening those tiny hand muscles!
6. Scissors – Children often come to school with no practice with scissors- we get it you don’t want your child to pretend to be a hair dresser or to cut something important! However, this is such an important skill and kids really love doing it so you can either get the plastic ones to practice with play dough or carefully supervise them as you teach them how to use scissors correctly. Start by practicing with scrap paper and just have them snip small pieces of paper, you can then move to lines and when they master that shapes and patterns. Your child’s teacher will thank you if they master this skill!!
These are just a few idea to get you started! Good luck!
Are you looking for some new fine motor games? SimplyFun may have something for you! Check out
https://www.simplyfun.com/TinaWilliams
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