Fine Motor
Working in a Vertical Plane
I am a big fan of working in a vertical plane. It helps promote a child's wrist position when holding a crayon, marker, or paint brush. It also helps their eye hand coordination by placing the paper at their eye level so they can see their hand while they are coloring, tracing, or drawing.
Promoting Grasp Pattern
Marker
Different tools to promote a functional grasp pattern
Paintbrushes & small sponges
More materials for functional grasp pattern
Q-tips, chalk, crayons –
cut them in half
Promoting a Functional Grasp (open web space) in Multisensory Ways
Chalk Drawings
Watering the Plants
Promoting Grasp Patterns
without Tools
Not every child is ready to control a marker, crayon, or paintbrush. Also, many children run out of the room if I show them these tools ;) . So try using stickers on a vertical surface to promote a functional grasp pattern. (Remember: functional = open web space)
Tips for Paper and Pencil Activities
Anytime you are asking your child to trace, have them trace an object, letter, or number that is presented as a whole image (not a dotted line - for the worksheets below, trace over the dotted lines with a highlighter before presenting it to your child). By showing them the whole image, you are promoting their visual spatial skill of seeing a whole and breaking it down to its component parts. This is especially important when asking them to trace letters and numbers.
FineMotorMonsterTracingLinesPreschoolPreWriting.pdfThink Beyond the Paper . . .
You can also have your child trace letters using other materials:
- Play Dough - feel free to use a marker or a pencil to write letters in playdough. This is especially helpful for children who need to strengthen their hand muscles
- Aluminum Foil (this also helps your child learn to modulate his or her force through the pencil or marker - if you press too hard, the foil will tear)
- Finger paints
- Glue small objects such as beans onto a large letter , line, or number drawn with a highlighter
KindergartenFineMotorSkillsWorksheetsFREE.pdfABCCapitalLettersTracingPrintables.pdf
Child Safe Scissors
Although these are designed for right handed children, I have found that even left handed students prefer these over other types of scissors.
Tips for Scissor Cutting
The handouts below are pretty advanced for our young children. So here are some suggestions for helping your child develop their tool use for cutting:
- Always present the scissors in the middle of their bodies. Young children do not necessarily develop hand dominance within their preschool years. When tools are more difficult to use, you often see them switching hands. Let them do it - they are figuring out what feels most comfortable.
- Provide materials that are easier to cut then paper such as playdough or ask them to cut tortillas, pita bread, or fruit roll ups into bite-size pieces
- If you do provide paper, using smaller pieces (4-inch by 2-inch piece) and use heavy-weight paper such as cardstock, construction paper, or thin cardboard.
- Use appropriate sized and types of scissors: Large scissors do not help to develop the handedness that you are working on with scissor tasks. So make certain you have child-size scissors appropriate for preschoolers (see image below) and use plastic scissors for playdough if your child is not able to safely use them yet.
- Supervise your child - not all 3, 4, or 5 year olds safely manage scissors, so you should observe and watch them use this tool closely.
Plastic Scissors
These are great for use with playdough and for children that are not yet safe with scissors.
Loop Scissors
These are a great tool for young children that are developing the motor planning for scissor use. They rely on having the child squeeze the handles together and then release. It is especially helpful for children that need to develop the muscles within the hand.
SquirrelandAcornScissorPracticePagesFREEBIEFineMotorFunforFall (1).pdfStPatricksDayScissorPracticeAdvanced.pdf