FINE MOTOR SKILLS

1. FINE MOTOR SKILLS The following list of activities have been recommended as beneficial to the development of fine motor skills. The activities serve only as ideas for improving fine motor skills and should not be seen as comprehensive. If you have concerns about your child's development of fine motor skills, please speak with you child’s teacher and/or seek professional advice from an Occupational Therapist. What are fine motor skills and why are they important? Fine motor control is the ability to precisely utilise one’s hands and fingers in a skilled activity. Fine motor activities occur in almost every single activity we do throughout the day. Good fine motor skills stem from having developed solid sensory, motor and perceptual foundations, something which we develop from birth and continue to develop right throughout our life span. Fine motor activities are very important in the classroom, as almost every academic task requires students to engage in fine motor activities.

2. Hand Strength The following activities promote development of strength in the small muscles of the hand and the muscles of the forearm. Adequate hand strength is essential for maintaining grasp (eg – holding pencil and drawing/writing for long periods) and manipulating objects with our fingers. • Activity ideas: • Scissor activities • Squeezing clothes pegs • Painting with spray bottles • Squeezing tubes • Hammering • Using pop beads and other interlocking toys • Stirring and kneading dough • Using tweezers/tongs to pick up objects/materials • Play musical instruments • Constructing with Lego, Duplo • Using stapler and hole punch in craft activities • Tearing and crumpling paper • Squeezing sponges • Screw/unscrew jars

3. Using water pistol • Using wind up toys • Putting buttons into an opening of tennis ball • Playdough activities: Rotate a small ball of plasticine with finger tips; roll plasticine into a sausage shape using fingers, not palm; Hold up playdough sausage and pinch between index finger and thumb without breaking sausage; Pinch playdough into a peak using three fingers; Cutting playdough with scissors; • Interweave a large rubber band between fingers and stretch fingers. • Pick up beads between fingers and drop one by one.

4. Finger isolation The term finger isolation refers to the ability to use certain fingers in isolation from the rest of the hand/fingers. It is an important skill for children to develop as it increases and improves their ability to control their pencil when writing and drawing. • Activity ideas: • Draw in wet sand with finger (eg – index finger) • Finger painting • Finger puppets • Music keyboard • Push button activities • Using eye-dropper for painting • Picking up coins & cards • Sprinkling rice ,sand etc • Card games • Spray bottles • Connect Four • Origami • Intrinsic colouring-in • Playdough activities • Using stickers as part of activity (peel off backing & place down)

5. General upper Limb strengthening and control activity ideas: • “Push Ups” – child completes sit ups or push ups by pushing against a wall, a chair or on the floor • All Fours Shoulder pressure: child kneels on all fours. The adult applies gentle • compression through shoulder, straight down, for 10 to 15 seconds. This force should not be great enough to fatigue the child’s muscles, and should be immediately followed with shoulder control activities • Scooter Board Activities: child propels themself along with arms; child holds onto a rope or hoop and is pulled along by an adult • Freeze Tag: like ordinary tag, but the child has to freeze when tagged and hold their position until tagged by someone else • Seesaws and swings • Monkey bars, climbing the fort • Trampolines – kneeling; standing; hands and knees • Easel Painting • Racquet and ball games • Ribbon dancing • Skipping with a skipping rope • Painting large pieces of paper with roller brushes • Drawing on a blackboard – wavy lines, straight lines, diagonal lines, circles, two hands drawing together at the same time

6. Proprioception Joint Movement Awareness, Body Position Sense or Proprioception is the sense that lets us know the position of our body parts without using our vision. This sense is essential for the execution of smooth and co-ordinated movements and also impacts on our arousal level. In addition, the proprioceptive sense has a regulating effect on a child’s nervous system and can influence a child's attention to task. Children who experience difficulties with Proprioception may appear ‘clumsy’, use heavy movements, they may use heavy or fluctuating pencil pressure and seem, ‘wriggly’ or ‘on the go’ all the time. These activities can be great to use as a “warm up” to fine motor activities. • Activity ideas: • Animal walks (crab walks, bear walks, seal walks) and commando crawls • Wheelbarrows or walking on your hands • Tug of war games, hanging/swinging on monkey bars, climbing • Pushing/pulling games (e.g. row, row, row your boat) • Rolling along the ground in a tunnel, rug or mattress • Clapping songs • Hand exercises - prayer pushes (push hands together), monkey grip (link fingers and pull), push, pull, squish, squeeze etc

7. Hammering activities or games like snap or hand pile ups • Playing with play dough/plasticine, push, pull, squish, squeeze, bang, poke etc. • Practice drawing shapes first with eyes open and then trying it with eyes shut. This can then be tried with shapes and letters • Drawing in the sand pit, on a blackboard or on the pavement, with chalk, use a pencil or finger to draw into flattened playdough • Rubbing arms and legs firmly • Try heavy work activities such as pushing chairs into desks, stacking chairs, opening heavy doors, wiping down desks or cleaning the blackboard

9. If you have suggestions for Fine Motor Activities that we could share with other parents/carers, please contact us on (07) 3264 0111 or drop in to the SNAP room