Helping children to develop excellent fine motor skills early on means they will find everyday tasks such as writing, eating, and getting dressed as lot easier as they grow.
To mark Occupational Therapy Week this year, we’ve drawn up a list of tips to help your child hone their fine motor skills.
1. Outdoor play, such as climbing, crawling, digging and playing with sand and water, can help children develop their fine motor skills.
2. Indoor activities to develop dexterity and strength include rough and tumble play, using saucepans as a drum kit, playdough, using toys that are heavy or tactile and crawling through homemade obstacle courses.
3. Letting your child explore their creative side with different equipment such as crayons, pencils, paints, chalk and finger paint will build up the small muscles they will need in later life.
4. Help them to progress their fine motor skills during bath time with soap crayons and water jugs.
5. Materials with different textures, such as clay, putty and slime will help them to build up good sensory awareness in their hands and fingers.
6. Messy play or games such as Operation, Pick-up Sticks, Ker Plunk, Jenga, Connect 4 and Tiddly Winks can also help them develop their fine motor skills.
Find out about our Occupational Therapists and the support they offer here. For more tips on life hacks, visit the RCOT website.