A motor skill is very important for a kid is growing up. The time at which kids develop the motor skills differs and at different rates. When kids find it hard to establish excellent motor skills, they will have trouble performing specific tasks like moving objects with their fingertips, grasping utensils (like pencils), and using tools like scissors. Kids with this problem also find it difficult to learn to tie shoes. Below are some activities you can follow if you have a child that needs little extra help with fine motor skills.
Play-Dough and Putty
The play-dough and putty is a diet that helps to improve the development of the sensory cells. They are used to help develop a child’s fine motor skills. This encourages your child to stretch, pinch, squeeze and roll “worms” or “snakes” with the play clay. There are different ways to teach your child; you can ask him to try to cut the play-dough with scissors.
Painting
Painting is good and different types of art can help improve your child’s manual dexterity and hand-eye coordination. Painting with the finger gives kids an opportunity to make use of their hands and to get messy. Also, painting with a brush helps to teach kids how to hold a brush and know how to use it as a tool. You can add a little sensory play to the mix by scratching and sniffing paint.
Playing With Sponges
This is very simple and requires smaller tools. You need to get a clean sponge, some water, and two bowls to get started. Fill one of the bowls with water and leave the other empty. This activity is done by allowing your child to put the sponge into the water and squeeze it out into the separate bowl. It will help strengthen the hands and forearms. You can also do a “Wet-Dry-Try” multisensory handwriting activity if you cut off a cube of the sponge with a small chalkboard.
Rice Races
Get three bowls – fill two with a handful of uncooked rice and leave the other bowl empty. Get two small plastic tweezers; give your child one and grab a pair for yourself. Get into racing with your child to see who can transfer their rice into the empty bowl first using the tweezers. You may start with pony beads or O-shaped cereal if your child is struggling to do it because the grains of rice are too small.
Water Play
Pour water into a cup, about a quarter full. Give an empty cup and a clean medicine syringe or an eyedropper to your child. Tell your child to transfer the water using the dropper or syringe from one cup to the other. You can teach your child how to do it. You can also add food colouring to the water to make a colour-mixing experiment.
Gardening and Planting
Although digging and gardening are activities that help to build gross motor skills, they are also used to control muscles too. This transfer of seedlings into the garden also helps to build your child in grasping of a spade to dig and using a pincer grasp to pick up seeds to plant.
