Strengthening Fine Motor Skills
Prior to grasping a pencil correctly and learning how to write efficiently, young children develop the skills needed for writing through engaging in a wide variety of hands-on play experiences with toys and tools and participating in activities of daily living such as self-feeding, dressing, and performing hygiene tasks. Activities like squeezing playdough, squeezing glue bottles, using tongs, cutting with scissors, tearing pieces of tape, and stringing things together will help to strengthen muscles in the hands.
Gross Motor Development is the Foundation
Gross Motor Development is the Foundation
Engaging in gross motor activity supports fine motor development by facilitating children’s ability to manage their bodies through space and increasing trunk control. These foundational skills are crucial for successfully sitting in a chair in order to write.
Gross motor activities include, but are not limited to: plenty of outdoor play, running, jumping, swinging, bike-riding, ball play, dancing, and crawling.
Cutting Project at Home with the Keen Boys
Aidan and his big brother came up with a fun activity to do at home: folding paper and cutting it to make different shapes and objects. Using scissors is great fine motor practice, and it develops hand strength and hand-eye coordination. From mom Ellen: “As an added bonus, it was a great use of recycled printer paper, and the elementary teacher in me loved the impromptu symmetry lesson!”
Thank you, Aidan and family!
Scissor Skill Development
Like writing, proficiency with scissors requires an advanced level of fine motor control. Before a child attempts to use scissors be sure that the necessary groundwork is in place. Here are some easy cutting tips and strategies to increase proficiency. Start with crumpling, ripping, and snipping, before moving on to cutting.
Crumpling of paper is the first step toward cutting with scissors. Why? When a child crumples paper he/she is establishing the needed motor planning for the “open-close” pattern required for using scissors. Crumpling is safe and fun for all levels of scissor-users with experienced cutters crumpling small bits of paper to make tiny “snowballs.”
Ripping a variety of thick papers (i.e. construction, index cards, magazine inserts) is a pre-cutting activity for young children. The ripping action facilitates the tripod grasp with hands ripping the paper in opposite directions.
Snipping with scissors means that one cut does the job. Children love to snip many different items other than paper (see media types below).
Cutting using multiple cut strokes is best practiced on thick paper types initially without lines. Next, incorporate bold, straight lines to encourage cutting accuracy. Cutting on curves can start on round paper plates. Cutting on angles and complex patterns is most challenging. Termination of cutting (knowing where to stop) takes practice.
