Simple Activities for the Development of Fine Motor Skills of Kids at Home

Fine motor skills refer to the ability of making movements using the small muscles in the hands, fingers, and wrists. We rely on these skills to make small movements and thus, to carry out our everyday tasks with ease and effectiveness. Since these skills come naturally to people, usually not much attention is paid to them regardless of the fact that they are crucial to the growth and development of every child.

These skills are not specific like reading or solving math equations but they have a direct impact on the ability of the children to learn and showcase what they know. Even the smallest of tasks like circling an answer in a question paper, writing an essay, holding a pencil, drawing pictures, and so on need the aid of the fine motor skills to be completed successfully. Now, the good news is that the fine motor skills of children can be improved to a great extent by simple activities that do not need any special tools and can be, in fact, carried out at home. We, the JP International School, recognized as the Best CBSE School in Greater Noida, suggest the following activities if you find your child weak in fine motor skills. These activities will surely help to improve upon the fine motor skills of your children.

Use bumpy papers for writing

We have seen that many children face the problem of staying within the lines while writing. Using bumpy and dark ruled papers to make them write can be a good solution to that. The bold lines on the top and bottom with a dotted line in between helps the children to see the barriers and that way, their letters do not drift while writing. You can help your child further by tracing the top and bottom lines with glue so that when the glue dries, the child hits the bumps while writing and thus gets the practice of writing within the lines.

Let them play with putty and play-dough

Playing with putty and play-dough help a lot in the development of the sensory organs of a child. Encourage your child to stretch, squeeze, roll, and pinch the play dough to make shapes like worms and snakes. You can even get playing scissors to get your child to cut the dough to make different shapes. We highly suggest this activity as it does the twofold job of ensuring that his/her fine motor skills and imaginative prowess both show significant improvement with time.

Bring out the crayons and let them paint

Bring out all of the favorite crayons and sketch pens of your child and let him/her paint to his/her heart’s content. Different kinds of painting help in strengthening the hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity of a child. It is better to let children use crayons and brushes while painting because this way, the kids learn to hold the brush and get greater control by using it like a tool. You can make different shapes and borders for your child and then ask him/her to try and keep the color within the lines while painting.

Get competitive with him/her using tweezers

Get a bowl and mix objects of two separate colors in it. Now, get a pair of tweezers to separate out the colors with your child. You can mix two colors of pebbles or rice and lentils to get the game started. Start the race by transferring the objects into two separate bowls using the tweezers. This will help strengthen the muscles of your child’s arms and forearms and also aid in the development of coordination skills.

Engage in gardening and planting activities

We vouch for engaging kids in planting and gardening activities from a young age because it helps in the development of both gross and fine motor skills. The activities like transferring seedlings into a garden needs hand-eye coordination to safely carry the small plants to the holes dug. Help your child in grasping trowels to dig and pincer grasps to pick up seeds for planting. All of these activities related to gardening require smaller muscle control which is crucial to the improvement of fine motor skills in them.

We, at the JP International School, have seen that children who have their fine motor skills developed from a young age also fare well in both academics and sports. On our part, we always attempt to engage our kids in varied fun games and activities in between the daily lessons, which aid in improving gross as well as fine motor skills. In the long run, the effects of such motor skills will be evidently seen in their all-encompassing growth, which is something that we all hope to see for them.

- JP International School