Fine motor skills

The coordination of small muscle movements – usually involving small, precise thumb, finger, hand, and wrist movements. Fine motor activity in the early year’s help children refine their pincer grasp (grasping an object with their thumb and pointer finger using their preferred hand) and is a precursor to handwriting. By practising picking up, manipulating, and exercising the small muscles in the palm of the hand you are enabling children to gain control and strength while colouring, drawing, cutting, and forming letters or writing when age appropriate. 

Hand and finger strengthening activities

• Squeeze a ball whilst watching TV or travelling in the car. This can be made by filling a balloon with flour. 

• Put an elastic band over your fingers and thumb, keeping it quite close to your fingertips. 

• Stretch your fingers open and shut them again to make a duck face. 

• Knead and pinch theraputty or playdoh into different shapes or animals e.g. letters, snake, hedgehog etc. 

• Pop bubble wrap between thumb and index finger. 

• Finger rhymes and action songs e.g. incy wincy spider. 

• Play games with tweezers e.g. operation game, feed the dog. 

• Use clothes pegs to pick up small items like cotton wool balls and beads. Squeeze pegs and place around a piece of cardboard or a plastic container. 

• Rip and crumple tissue paper and glue onto card. 

• Construction toys, such as Lego or Duplo, are great at developing finger and hand control.

• Build a tower of bricks or cubes. 

• Thread beads onto a lace. 

• Peeling stickers off their backing is a fantastic way to develop fine motor skills and concentration.

Activities to promote awareness of shapes and shape formation

• Feeling wooden or plastic shapes/letters with eyes open, and then trying to guess what they are with eyes closed.

• Tracing the shape of letters and shapes made of string or sandpaper glued onto card.

• 'Walking' shapes and letters on the floor or 'writing' with your finger on your child's back.

• Drawing shapes and letters in the air, using a whole arm movement.

• Practising drawing on a vertical surface, for example a blackboard or paper pinned on the wall.

• Making patterns in flour, sand or shaving foam.

• Potato or sponge printing.

• Making shapes and letters out of playdough or pipe cleaners.

• Copying activities to a defined pattern, for example peg board, Fuzzy Felt or block patterns.