Developing Fine Motor Skills Through Everyday Activities

As adults, we often take fine motor skills for granted. We easily move our hands, fingers, toes and other smaller muscles to perform everyday tasks such as picking up that cup of coffee, unlocking the door and putting our socks on! But we may have forgotten that we had to learn and hone these skills as children, which required a little bit of effort at the time!

Developing fine motor skills in pre-school children is essential for independence, self-care, and academic success when they enter the schooling system. So, let’s explore what fine motor skills are and some practical tips and ideas for activities that help children strengthen the necessary muscles and coordination.

What Are Fine Motor Skills?

Fine motor skills are the small yet important movements we make seemingly automatically with our hands, fingers, feet and toes. They involve complex coordination between your muscles, joints and nerves, or in other words, the combination of controlled muscle strength, coordination, situational awareness, and dexterity.

The development of these skills allows us to carry out all of the countless little tasks that make up our day. For young children, these skills might involve performing everyday tasks such as holding a pencil or a crayon for writing or drawing, turning the pages of a book, using utensils and tying their shoe laces.

We are not born with fine motor skills, we develop them as we grow. The learning process involves creating the necessary connection and coordination between the brain and muscles in order to make small, precise, carefully controlled movements. These movements are what allow us to hold, pick up, stack, thread, press, cut, tap, and much more.

Why Are Fine Motor Skills Important?

As well as being essential for many day-to-day tasks, fine motor skills are a big part of self-management and success within the school environment. This includes things like learning to write, play an instrument, and/or type on a keyboard. The three main reasons why fine motor skills are important are:

1. Developing Independence. Fine motor skills are very important for introducing and developing self-care activities like dressing, eating, and taking care of personal hygiene.
2. Academic Success. Fine motor skills are directly linked to success in core school activities such as writing, drawing, and using scissors (fundamental skills required when starting school).
3. Social Interaction. Being able to perform tasks independently fosters confidence and encourages more positive social engagement as the child grows and interacts with more and more people outside of the home.

Everyday Activities To Enhance Fine Motor Skills In Preschoolers

So now we know how important fine motor skills are – what can we do to encourage and support the development of these skills in our children? Here are some practical tips and activities that can be easily incorporated into a child's daily routine to promote the development of fine motor skills around the home (of course, these tasks will be age-dependent and should be adjusted appropriately).

• Helping Out In The Kitchen. Opening and closing containers, stirring or measuring ingredients, peeling vegetables, picking up food using tongs, or making fruit or vegetable kebabs.
• Playing Around With Playdough. Rolling, squeezing, pinching, and shaping playdough.
• Building With Blocks. Stacking and manipulating blocks in various ways.
• Helping With The Laundry. Hanging clothes using clothes pegs or (attempting) to fold clothes.
• Joining In Gardening Projects. Planting flowers or vegetable seeds or seedlings, weeding or using a rake or broom to collect leaves into a pile.
• Getting Dressed For The Day. Buttoning and zipping clothes, choosing clothing from drawers and tying shoes.
• Carrying Out Personal Hygiene Tasks. Brushing teeth, getting the toothpaste on the brush and combing or tying hair.
• Completing Puzzles. Putting together different types of puzzles and puzzle pieces.
• Cutting With Scissors. Using child-safe scissors to cut paper, cardboard or objects like playdough or string.
• Sorting Activities. Sorting items like buttons, beads or blocks into shapes and colours.
• Drawing And Colouring. Using crayons, markers, pens and pencils to draw shapes and colour in pictures (focusing on staying within the lines).
• Sticker Activities. Peeling and placing stickers on prepared surfaces or on objects just for fun!
• Threading Beads. Stringing beads onto a thread, tying knots and making patterns.
• Getting Wet With Water Play. Using watermills, cups and other containers to fill, empty and move water in supervised water play.
• Using Tongs And Tweezers. Picking up small objects with tongs or tweezers (you could also incorporate sorting into this one).
• Construction Games. Screwing nuts and bolts, hammering, or playing with LEGO or Duplo.
• Paper Craft. Tearing paper into small pieces for confetti, mosaic crafts, origami, or papier mache, etc.
• Painting. Painting with various tools like brushes, sponges, and fingers while exploring different textures and colours.
• Making Music. Playing musical instruments like drums, recorders or keyboards, or even using pots and pans as a substitute!

Please note: All of these suggestions depend on the individual child's age and capabilities. Please adjust the activity accordingly and always ensure adequate supervision, especially where water is concerned or when choking hazards are present.

‍How Do Fine Motor Skills Activities Work?

Essentially, fine motor activities provide opportunities to challenge and practice getting the brain and smaller muscles to work together more effectively. This leads to improved control, precision, and coordination. When working on developing fine motor skills at a pre-school level and the activities above we have a few specific goals in mind, we are focusing on:

• Strengthening muscles and muscle memory
• Developing hand-eye coordination
• Improving dexterity and precision
• Developing problem-solving skills
• Building bilateral coordination (using both hands together in a coordinated way)  

Adapting The Difficulty

There are many factors that may influence a child’s ability to work on their fine motor skills. The good news is that there are many ways to adapt or modify these everyday tasks and activities to make them more accessible for all. Some examples of adaptations might be:

• Simplifying The Process. Reducing the steps necessary to complete the task can help with short attention spans and different ability levels. For example, clothing that has zips might be easier than buttons, and using a straw might be easier than being able to drink from a cup without spillage.
• Reducing Or Enlarging Items. Adjusting the size of the items you are using (particularly in holding or grasping exercises) or reducing the number of items can make the task easier. This might mean replacing small beads with large Duplo bricks for sorting or stacking, choosing puzzles with larger pieces or built in knobs, or colouring with crayons instead of colouring pencils. Your goal here is to make the activity easier to manipulate or grasp while reducing the time it takes to complete the task.
• Offering Visual Cues. A particularly useful one for preschoolers, it can sometimes be beneficial to provide visual cues for each step to aid in the completion of a task. This might include things like gestures, demonstrations or even pictures and diagrams, depending on the age of the child.
• Providing Additional Stabilisation. Providing added stability makes interaction safer and easier, preventing toys or objects from tipping over unexpectedly. Velcro is great for many applications, as are magnets and clamps, or just holding onto the item.

6 Tips For Parents And Preschool Educators

While some children may be instantly interested in any, and all activities, others may take a little more encouragement to get hands-on. Here are a few tips for parents and preschool educators to get the most out of fine motor skills activities.

1. Make It Fun! Incorporating fun and laughter into any activity always encourages a more relaxed atmosphere, facilitating greater engagement and more memorable learning opportunities.
2. Use Everyday Items. Building fine motor skills doesn’t require expensive toys or fancy equipment, activities can be done with everyday items found around the house. In fact, some of the best items are simple things like clothes pegs, pots and pans and shoelaces which are readily available in most households and offer greater interest to children as they see you using them.
3. Provide Variety. Offering a range of activities targeting different fine motor skills over time is the best approach for children of all ages, as they often lose interest in overly long or repetitive tasks.
4. Allow For Independence. Allowing children to carry out the tasks and activities by themselves is a must - even if it’s a little frustrating, time-consuming or results in a bit of a mess!
5. Be Patient. Fine motor skills develop gradually, don’t expect your child to be able to master the activity immediately - be patient and supportive for best results.
6. Supervise Supervise Supervise. Always, always, ensure that your choice of activities are age-appropriate and safe for the child. Maintain extra diligent levels of supervision, especially where water or small objects are concerned.

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By incorporating these everyday activities into a child's routine, parents and preschool educators can help children strengthen fine motor skills, improve coordination - building essential skills for life! See here for more information on preparing your child for school, or get in touch with Annabel’s Educare for professional preschool services in Christchurch.

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