Introduction to Fine Motor Development
Fine Motor Definition: The ability to co-ordinate the small muscles of the hand. This includes the ability to grasp, pick up, release, imitate and copy patterns. These small muscles perform the movements used in writing, or holding a pencil.
Children benefit from experiences that enhance the development of their fine motor skills enabling them to utilize their hands and fingers. Children need to have strength and dexterity in their hands and fingers, as well as eye-hand coordination, before being able to manipulate a pencil on paper.
The following articles will provide you with strategies, activities, guidelines and adaptations to help you begin to address your child’s fine motor skills. The activities outlined involve the use of manipulatives, some of which can be purchased and most of which can be made using homemade materials, which will support your child’s fine motor development. Many of the ideas can be implemented during various routines at home. Maryanne Bruni’s article “Having Fun with Fine Motor Development” outlines the various developmental milestones that children go through in reaching their functional level of fine motor ability. It is important to review these stages to have a better understanding of where your child is at in order to appropriately plan and implement activities you can introduce to your child and how to make any necessary adaptations.
Included in this area is a list of diagrams depicting various grasps. From palmer grasp to pincer grasp, you can view each diagram to help you better understand which grasp your child presently uses and what sort of activities you can be providing to further enhance this grasp and help move on to the next stage. When the child has mastered the grasp of holding a pencil correctly, they may be ready to move on to pencil and paper work. Before getting there though, there should be signs of “readiness” indicating the child is prepared to move from pre-printing skills to pencil and paper activities. Included in this section is a checklist and pre-requisites to “Pre-Writing Skills” which will assist parents and teachers in assessing this area before implementing activities or paper work. Some activity sheets are provided for introducing pre-writing skills. Also some strategies to begin to develop the concept of printing letters and numbers are included for the child who is at this more advanced level of writing.
Some children have difficulties with coordinating their eyes with their hand movements together and require further practice in eventually mastering this skill. The article “Development of Eye- Hand Coordination” provides numerous activity suggestions to promote this skill area. Learning to use scissors to cut requires eye-hand coordination and hand and wrist control. Included is a checklist for scissor usage which can be utilized in measuring the child’s cutting capabilities and again helping you determine what to expect and how to plan activities accordingly. Suggested “cutting” activities are provided for various levels and capabilities. Some children may require additional support in building their fine motor skills. A referral to an Occupational Therapist may be necessary to help address any pressing concerns.
Please check out the workshop Toy Shop for more great ideas on fine motor activities you can make yourself in a few easy steps. We hope you find the following articles useful in addressing your child’s fine motor development.
Compiled and Edited by: Raffi Marinuzzo and Fatima Kediye
Please see the following web-site for practical activities that you can use in your home or in the classroom to develop Fine Motor Muscles
http://connectability.ca/2011/03/21/practical-strategies-for-developing-fine-motor-skills/