Developing Fine Motor Skills

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What are Fine Motor Skills?

Fine motor skills allow us to use the small muscles in our hands and wrists to make accurate and controlled movements. These movements enable us to complete tasks such as holding and controlling a pen or a pair of scissors correctly.

Developing fine motor strength is absolutely essential for learning to write; which is a reason why physical development is one of the key areas of learning in the Early Years Framework. Children need to have well developed fine motor skills in order to be able to manipulate a pen or pencil for writing. Writing can become unenjoyable for children who have under developed fine motor strength as they need this in order to attempt the task.

Fine Motor Development Essential for Writing

But, it hurts!

Have you ever heard a child moan, “But, it hurts!” whilst they are drawing, colouring or writing? If so, don’t fret. This is common in the early years; especially for boys. More naturally, boys enjoy developing their gross motor skills first as this involves making big movements like pulling a tree branch across the forest floor. The development of fine motor skills can take a bit more time and effort. It involves doing tasks that are smaller, more intricate and don’t necessarily have big quick results. Despite this, developing fine motor skills is an absolutely critical part of pre-school preparation. Children who miss out fine motor development will struggle to complete a number of tasks (such as writing and cutting) at school and home.

Developing Fine Motor Skills Everyday Activities

Personal Care:

• Brushing teeth
• Putting on socks & shoes
• Getting dressed
• Wiping their own bottoms
• Washing their hands – turning on the tap, rubbing their hands together, drying effectively

Independent Play:

• Playing with building blocks
• Turning the pages of a book
• Manipulating fingers to count
• Using cutlery
• Squeezing a sponge or a bottle
• Ripping, scrunching or folding paper
• Using pens, pencils, paintbrushes and scissors
• Opening anything … a door by turning the handle, a packet of crisps, a glue stick
• Completing sticker books
• Threading activities
• Actions for nursery rhymes

Independence is Everything!

Try to encourage your child to be as independent as possible when having a go at everyday activities such as getting dressed, wiping themselves, getting dry after a bath. These activities require a lot of fine and gross motor strength as well as cross lateral integration and general body coordination. It will take time, patience and practice for your child to master independence in these areas but please keep trying to encourage them to be as independent at possible.

Stop & Think: If you child struggles with independence think ahead to when you have time to allow your child to be independent. Mornings can be a bit too rushed (especially when it takes 10 minutes to put on a pair of socks) instead, think ahead to when you do have time. Perhaps at the weekends or during family holidays.

Developing Fine Motor Skills: Idea 1

Get Creative

Getting creative with your child is a really fun and effective way of building fine motor skills ready for writing. Read more about how creativity can support fine motor strength and some great top tops to help you get started here:

Developing Fine Motor Skills: Idea 2

Sewing

Sewing s a really lovely calm activity. It is great for developing hand-eye coordination, fine motor, cross lateral integration, language and concentration skills. If you have a boy, don’t fret, they will love this activity just as much as the girls!

Sewing Top Tips

1. If this is your child’s first sewing experience I would recommend they sew into a board rather than fabric. Take a look at www.cottonclara.com for some lovely sewing boards, our favourite is the rainbow board.
2. Sew the first two holes for your child.
3. Show your child how to do it by letting them hold the needle and you explaining what they need to do (great for language development).
4. Be patient. Try to keep this activity as calm as you can. If any mistakes happen they are easily rectified as your child is sewing into board rather than fabric.
5. Take your time. It is unlikely that your child will have the concentration to be able to finish the whole rainbow in one sitting. That’s absolutely fine, I would recommend completing one line of the rainbow at a time.
6. Work as hard as you can to keep this their project and let them complete it at their own speed.
7. Sew it again and again! When your child wants to do some more sewing choose a colour in the rainbow that they want to redo. Unpick the line and then using some left over cotton included in the kit to sew the line in again.

Sewing with Hessian

Hessian is an inexpensive material to buy and it is really easy for children to sew into. These pieces of sewing make lovely presents for friends and family.

What You’ll Need:

• Hessian
• Sewing needle (with a big enough eye for the wool)
• Wool
• Scissors
• Felt tip pens (optional)

How to Sew with Hessian:

1. To get started find a clear space at a table – this will allow your child to lean against a hard surface which they will find useful.
2. If your child wants, they could draw their design onto the hessian beforehand using a felt tip pen.
3. Thread the needle and tie the two ends of the wool together at the end so that the needle doesn’t unthread when sewing.
4. Start the sewing off for your child by placing the needle in the correct position.
5. Work together until your child wants to continue on their own. You can help with turning the hessian over so that your child knows where to place their needle next.
6. When helping, try not to do the sewing for your child. Instead you can help to hold the hessian and use words to explain where the needle needs to go. This really helps with language development and you’ll find yourself using a lot of words which are linked to mathematical and spatial understanding such as small, big, on top, underneath, next to.

Top Tip: Your child’s sewing doesn’t have to resemble anything. Is is the skill of manipulating the needle, thread and hessian which is important in this activity. Whether your child creates something recognisable or not, they are still building up their fine motor strength. Don’t stress and have fun!

Developing Fine Motor Skills: Idea 3

Play Dough

Play dough is a great activity for encouraging fine motor strength. When things get messy try and remember that playing with dough strengthens the hands, so that little hands are ready for writing. If you are worried about mess think ahead about what your rules are for dough play and communicate these clearly with your child.

Whilst playing with the dough encourage your child to roll, squeeze, twist and poke it. Use alternate hands and every finger. Watch ‘Dough Disco’ videos on YouTube, our favourite ones are created by Early Years Emily.

Sing rhymes such as Tommy Thumb, and when each finger is mentioned poke it into the dough. Squeeze and roll the dough then repeat the song using the alternative hand.

Make your dough more exciting by adding:

• biodegradable glitter
• a scented oil or spice (lemon, lime, ginger, cinnamon, mixed spices)
• dried herbs or flowers

Make additional items available for more dough fun:

• buttons
• gems
• shells
• dried beans / seeds
• cutters
• rolling pin
• cutlery
• scissors
• toy animals
• toy cars
• superhero figures
• lolly-pop sticks
• wobbly eyes
• cupcake cases
• cupcake tray
• candles (unlit!)
• pipe cleaners

Almost anything can be used to enhance play dough fun! In addition to fine and gross motor development, play dough is a great tool for encouraging role play, creative expression and language development.

Easy Play Dough Recipe

Cooking is a great way to have fun together and develop both fine and gross motor strength. Additionally, cooking helps with listening and attention, following simple instructions, language development, measuring and counting.

Ingredients:

Use any size cup you have in your cupboard to measure out:

• 2 cups plain flour
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (baby oil works as well)
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
• 1 to 1.5 cups boiling water
• Food colouring

Method:

1. Mix together the flour, salt, cream of tartar and oil in a big bowl.
2. Add the food colouring to the boiling water (if you want to make balls of different coloured dough add the colouring once you have finished kneading).
3. Poor the water into the dry ingredients a little at a time.
4. Stir continuously until it becomes a sticky, combined dough.
5. The mixture will be hot so allow it to cool for a bit before taking it out of the bowl.
6. Place the dough on a table and knead a lot (great for gross motor development!)
7. Keep kneading until you reach a play dough consistency.
8. If it’s a bit too sticky add a little flour, if it’s too dry add a little water.
9. To keep the dough from drying out store in a zip-lock bag with the air pushed out or a food container.

Developing Fine Motor Skills: Idea 4

Cooking

Cooking is a great everyday activity that supports the development of so many essential early years skills:

• fine motor
• gross motor
• cross-lateral integration
• language & communication
• listening
• attention
• counting
• measuring

Stop & Think: Look carefully at the images below and see if you can list all of the early years skills the children are developing.

For example, in the first picture my son is developing: following instructions, fine motor strength, attention, creative-expression, imaginative thinking (if he had made the gingerbread I would have said mathematical understanding, but I cheated and this was a pre-made pack!) #mumwin

Developing Fine Motor Skills: Idea 5

Pipettes

Lots of fun, very messy and a great way to develop fine motor strength!

The kids will love playing with these but if you’re not thrilled about the thought of clearing up the mess, make play with these an outdoor or a bath time activity.

When playing with pipettes and water try adding food colouring and biodegradable glitter. Introduce different sized containers and objects with holes in such as colanders.

Adult led activities (not suitable for bath time!)

As well as developing fine motor strength these activities are great for language development. When completing these activities remember to keep talking to your child. Explain everything that is taking place, what resources are being used and what is happening each step of the way.

Pipette Ice Volcano

What you’ll need:

• pipettes
• vinegar
• baking soda
• ice cubes
• food zip-lock bags
• rolling pin
• deep food container

How to make an Ice Volcano:

1. Mix the vinegar and food colouring together in a small cup.
2. Put some cubes of ice in a zip-lock bag and bash it with the rolling pin so that the ice breaks up (great for gross motor development).
3. Put some of the ice into a container.
4. Sprinkle loads of baking soda over the ice.
5. Using the pipette drop the coloured vinegar over the ice and baking soda.
6. Watch carefully at what happens and encourage your child to describe what they see.
7. Continue with the activity adding more baking soda and vinegar.

Pipette Colour Mixing

What you’ll need:

• pipettes
• food colouring
• water
• lots of small containers

How to colour mix using pipettes:

1. Add different coloured food colourings to small pots of water.
2. Line up your pots of coloured water alongside empty pots.
3. Talk about which colours you want to experiment mixing together and make some predictions about what colours you might make.
4. Use the pipettes to drop the chosen colours into an empty pot.
5. Talk about what colour was made.
6. Repeat the activity making different colours and experimenting with shades of colour as well.
7. You could also do this activity on paper or kitchen roll.

Pipette Painting

What you need:

• pipettes
• paper / canvas
• paint
• water

How to paint using pipettes:

1. Get set up in a space which you don’t mind getting a bit messy (probably outside!)
2. Water down the paint.
3. Use the pipette to splat and dot the watered down paint across paper or canvas to create a Jackson Pollock inspired piece of art.

Top Tips

Encourage your child to use a brush or sponge to paint the background of their paper or canvas first , then pipette paint over the top.

If you have any spray bottles at home you can also use these in the same was as the pipettes to create amazing pieces of artwork. The action of compressing the handle of the spray bottle requires a lot of hand strength so is brilliant for building up those fine motor skills.

Whether using pipettes or spray bottles (or both) be generous with the amount of water you mix with the paint.

To clean your pipettes, flush them a few times with clean water, then load them with warm soapy water and leave in a cup to soak overnight (see image below).

Developing Fine Motor Skills: Idea 6

Tweezers & Chop Sticks

Managing tweezers requires a lot of hand strength and coordination, as does using chop sticks.

Place different sized objects in a bowl or tray and use the tweezers (chop sticks) to pick up an item and place it into a container.

Objects	Containers	Other Ideas
Pompoms Buttons Shells Stones Dried beanspasta, rice Small bricks/cubes/Lego Conkers Marbles Craft Gems	Cupcake cases Plant pots Cups Bowls Ice-cube trays Old egg cartons	Put the objects in: water, sand, soil, playdough or even slime. Use chopsticks to eat with (better still, go out for a meal at a Chinese restaurant). Add a competitive edge – use a timer!