What are fine motor skills?

You might have heard the words ‘fine motor skills’ thrown around by your child’s occupational therapist, educator or school teacher, and wondered what they mean by this.

Fine motor skills involve a child’s ability to use the small muscles of their fingers and hands with control and precision. Fine motor skills involve being able to control your hands and fingers to move the way you need them to in everyday activities.

Why are fine motor skills important?

We use fine motor skills in everything we do, each day. When we get dressed, we need to have finger strength and control to do buttons up, zip up pants, tie shoelaces and pull on socks.

We need fine motor skills to open food packets, use a knife and fork to eat, and open water bottles and food jars.

Fine motor skills help us to hold a pencil and write letters or draw and to control scissors when cutting paper.

Children use fine motor skills during play as well, to squish and squeeze playdough, put Lego pieces together or do puzzles.

Having strong hands and fingers, means that children can do all of these activities independently which can be important, as they grow older. For example, when children begin school, they might be expected to start being able to dress themselves when using the toilet, and feed themselves at lunch time.

As they progress into higher grades in school, they will start having to write long sentences or pages at school. Developing their fine motor skills from younger ages, will help them to have the strength to do this, without getting sore and tired hands quickly.

How can we support children to develop fine motor skills?

During a child’s early years, there are lots of ways to support their fine motor skills and hand strength, before they even begin handwriting. Here are some fun ideas, that you might be able to try at home!

• Ripping and scrunching paper: have your child rip up pieces of paper and scrunch them into small balls. Make it more fun by playing ‘paper soccer’, using your finger and thumb to flick the paper balls into a ‘goal’.

• Play dough: this is a fun activity that many children already enjoy. Squeezing, rolling, and even cutting playdough is a great way to strengthen little fingers and hands. Using different tools with playdough is also helpful for getting ready for using tools in school like scissors, pencils, and glue sticks.

• Spray bottles: fill spray bottles with water or mix in some paint to make an artistic creation! They could also use spray bottles to help water plants, spray their hair, or have fun with water play.

• Playing with pegs: using pegs is a great way to strengthen your child’s fingers, and to practice controlling the thumb and pointer finger. This is super helpful for getting ready for handwriting. Your child might be able to help with hanging out the laundry, or they can play pretend and do their doll’s laundry. Or, they might like to make little peg animals/puppets to play with!

• Using tongs: Using tongs is a great way to develop fine motor strength! Your child might like to play with tongs and pom poms, or pretend to cook food on a barbecue. The game ‘Barbecue Party’ is a fun game where children can use tongs to put ‘food’ on the barbecue, but you could also play pretend with what you already have at home!

• Threading and lacing: Give your child some beads and string and have them make a bracelet or a key ring! Or have them practice hole punching paper/cardboard and threading a piece of string through the holes.

• Chalk drawing: Take some chalk to a nearby pathway and get creative! Holding large pieces of chalk is easier than holding a small pencil, and is a great way to practice drawing shapes and lines, in a fun and colourful way! You could also make a chalk mosaic, using tape to make shapes and colouring in the gaps!

• Painting with water: Give your child a bucket of water and a paintbrush or sticks, and have them draw on a fence or the pathway.

• Craft: keep old cereal, biscuit boxes and toilet paper rolls, and make a creation with your child! Let them play around with sticky tape, glue, scissors, stamps and stickers! This gives them a fun and creative way to practice their fine motor skills.

• Games: There are also a number of games that you can buy and play that practice fine motor skills. Some of these include puzzles, card games (especially memory, where they have to flip cards over), Lego, stacking blocks, Mr Potato Head and pick up sticks.

• Encouraging independence in their daily routines: When your child is getting dressed in the morning, see if they can have a go at pulling their pants up by themselves, or doing up one button before you help them. Or have them practice opening their own food packets and feeding themselves. Taking these little steps will help them be ready to do it all themselves!

Every child develops their fine motor skills at different times, and some may find it easier than others! These are some good starting points for fine motor practice, but if your child require some extra support, occupational therapists are great for helping with fine motor skills!