Fine Motor

Many school have noticed that fine motor skills are becoming weaker in children.  This trend These are critical for academic work and lifelong independence.  

Fine motor skills involve the coordination of small muscles in children’s hands and fingers.  Strong small motor skills are essential for completing many academic tasks such as holding a pencil correctly for writing or drawing, coloring, cutting and pasting.  They are also important for many self-help tasks, which include utilizing eating utensils, zipping, buttoning, opening jars, brushing teeth and more!

Efficient fine motor abilities also require a variety of other developmental skills working together simultaneously, such as visual attention, hand-eye coordination, shoulder/elbow stability, spatial awareness and core strength.

Tasks you will see that are developing fine motor skills in the classroom:

       *Play dough exploration

       *Beading

       *Scissor tasks

       *Small manipulative play (Legos is one example)

       *Tweezer challenges

*Use of different writing/drawing utensils (markers, crayons, pencils, etc)

*Encouragement with independent buttoning, zipping and opening

*Vertical surface work (painting on the easel)

*Puzzles

*Block building

In the classroom we have many activities to assist with developing fine motor strength. Working with your child on drawing, lacing, tying, cutting with scissors, using silverware, beading are some simple ways to foster continued growth at home.