Home Activities That Benefit Your Child’s Fine Motor Development

Fine motor skills are an essential part of your child’s daily life. They allow your child to interact freely with the world around them. The best way to help your child develop fine motor skills is through play! The activities on this list are great to incorporate into a play session to help develop fine motor skills.

If your child is currently in therapy, a home exercise plan is a fantastic way for them to continue making progress. Therapy is only one part of your child’s journey, and it is essential to carry what they learn in therapy into their daily lives. Incorporating fun “exercises” in a play format is an excellent way to do this.

Core Strength and Stability

Core strength is used to keep the body upright and maintain posture. This is important since many activities, such as handwriting, drawing, or even sitting at a desk for the school day, require core strength.

Activities to improve core strength:

·      Pull your child on a scooter while they are lying on their stomach.

·      Bounce on an exercise ball

·      Animal Walks (e.g., bear crawl or crab walk)

·      Swinging on a swing

Shoulder Stability

Shoulder stability is required for all fine motor activity. If the shoulders are weak or not stable, a child will likely have trouble with fine motor skills.

Activities to improve shoulder stability:

·      wall pushups

·      animal walks

·      chair push-up (push the body up while sitting in a chair)

·      wheelbarrow walk (hold the child’s legs while they walk on their hands.)

Hand Strength

We use hand strength to grasp items, manipulate them, and hold them for long periods. This is also important later on when your child begins to learn how to color and write.  

Activities to improve hand strength:

·      squeeze a stress ball

·      roll, press, and tear playdough

·      buttons, zippers

·      play with toys that have manipulative elements.

Hand-Eye Coordination

Hand-eye coordination involves taking information visually and coordinating hand movement to complete a task. This is a vital skill used for everything from picking up toys to sports later in life.

Activities to improve hand-eye coordination:

·      Playing catch

·      Threading cut-up straws onto a piece of string.

·      Lacing shoes or lacing cards

Pre-Writing Skills

Pre-writing is the foundation for writing. It involves drawing lines and shapes that eventually will make up letters. By obtaining prewriting skills, your child will have the fine motor skills needed to begin to write. If there is trouble with pre-writing skills, a child will likely have trouble with handwriting. 

Activities to improve pre-writing skills:

·      play with blocks

·      finger paint or draw with puffy paint

·      outdoor chalk

Pencil Grasp

Pencil grasp is an essential skill for handwriting, which is a crucial part of a child’s school curriculum. A proper pencil grasp enables a child to write comfortably and produce neat writing.

Activities to improve pencil grasp:

·      pick objects up with tongs or scoops

·      pin clothespins

·      thread dried pasta or cut-up straws onto a string

Scissor Skills

Using scissors is a common task in kindergarten and beyond. Using scissors is essential because it improves fine motor skills, such as hand strength and bilateral coordination. It involves opening and closing of the hand and also lots of concentration.

Activities to improve scissor skills

·      cut play dough

·      tear paper

·      pin paper clips onto a piece of paper.

• Source

  “Occupational Therapy Tips!” Rialtas na hEireann Government of Ireland, accessed 12 October 2022, https://ncse.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Fine-and-gross-motor-info-sheets-for-the-home.pdf.