Scissor Skills

Here are some activities you can target before your child is ready to hold scissors, or to help further develop their scissor skills:

• Play with tongs and tweezers - this activity targets the same muscles and motor skills involved in opening and closing scissors. Practice using verbal cues such as 'squeeze' and 'open' to use the tweezers or tongs to pick up pom-poms or other items of interest! 

• Turkey basters or eye dropper style toys are also great ways to practice building the smaller muscles of the hand that will be used for scissors

• Using scissors involves doing two different things with each hand - one hand holds the paper and the other holds the scissors - this is called bilateral coordination. Other activities that target bilateral coordination are:

  •  opening a container

  • colouring (one hand holds the paper, the other holds a marker)

  • beading and lacing activities 

• When first learning to use scissors, children will practice making snips along the edge of a piece of paper. With some practice, they may start making multiple snips in a row

• Once your child can make several snips in a row, you can practice cutting along a short, thick line. Gradually make the line thinner as the child gains confidence and coordination!

• Straight lines will be easiest to start, and work towards gentle curves, and finally to shapes such as squares and circles. 

• See the handout below for tips on encouraging proper positioning and grasp when using scissors!

Using scissors involves a lot of coordination and strength! If your child is having difficulty, consider the below adaptations to help them:

-Difficulty managing the paper

• • • use stiffer paper like cardstock

    • use smaller strips of paper, and cut along the shorter width (consider paint chip samples, for example)

-Difficulty opening and closing the scissors

• • Consider trying spring loaded scissors which reduces the need to re-open the scissors after snipping

-Difficulty keeping fingers in the loop holes

• Consider smaller sized scissors for smaller hands, or 'Loop' Scissors