Helping Your Child Develop their Fine Motor Skills

Disclosure - This is a collaborative post - 

Many, if not all, of our day-to-day activities revolve around fine motor skills. Fine motor skills are the skills needed to use the small muscles found in our arms, hands and feet that can only be developed through practice and lots of play. Activities aim to strengthen these muscles and improve coordination to allow children to develop their own independence.

We have teamed up with a pre prep school in Hampshire to share more on helping your child develop their fine motor skills.

Weaving Wool

All this activity involves is a cardboard cut-out and a reel of wool. You will need to tape the end of the wool to the piece of cardboard and get your child to wrap it tightly around the cut-out until it is fully woven and covered. This exercise offers a great way to get your child to exercise their creativity while getting them to practice their holding and gripping skills. For ease, you might want to choose a shape with a hole to make the process of feeding the wool through easier. This could be a circular or heart-shaped hoop.

Create a Post Box

Another option for getting your child to practice holding and gripping is a post box. This is a box with cut-outs for your child to post items through. These items can be bottle tops, balls or beads. You can just as easily turn this into a lesson on shapes by adjusting the shape of the cut-outs and finding objects to fit.

Play Dough 

Some may be fearful of play dough and the potential consequences for their carpet, but it can greatly help children in their development. All the squishing and squashing that’s needed to mould play dough can help your child to develop the essential skills needed to press and pinch. As an activity, you could create playdough versions of each other. This can make for lots of fun and stretch your child’s creativity.

Musical Instruments

One less frightening option that won’t create a whole lot of mess is musical play. Instruments such as the guitar and keyboard require a lot of finger work which will help your child to exercise the muscles in their arms too. This could also be a way of getting your child into the arts by igniting a love for music at a young age.

These are just four ways to help your child develop their fine motor skills. There are so many more and you can make it as fun as you like. The messier the better!

Michelle