6 Fun Activities to Develop Fine Motor Skills in Children

It’s a pretty well-known fact that fine motor skills do play a significant role in the development of a child.

Children having problems with fine motor skills usually have a difficult time developing strong muscles in their hands and wrists. It’s a problem; there’s simply no doubt about it. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be turned into a part of the solution.

Several after-school activities can help in your situation by assisting the development of fine motor skills in your child which, at the same time, can also play a major role in developing dexterity in the kid.

Now, in this article, we have listed a few of these fine motor activities for your reference. Let’s go through them all without further ado.

1. Play with the dough

Play-dough has always been one of the age-old favorites of the kids.

It’s not only fun to be involved with, but the creative handling of play-dough also plays a major role in developing fine motor skills in the child. The activity also helps to strengthen finger muscles which is definitely an upside in itself.

So stock up on play-dough, and encourage your kid to engage with the same. You kid would love it for sure.

2. Use finger painting to your benefits

Source- Wiki

Finger painting can significantly improve your child’s hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity skills for good.

The activity is also pretty fun to engage with. All you’ll be needing is a quiet space, non-toxic colors, a piece of paper or an easel (an easel is more advisable), and that’ll be it.

Note: Finger painting can get quite messy in certain circumstances. Hence, it’s more advisable to do this activity in your yard or your garage where the child can get messy to his/her heart’s content.

3. Encourage your kid to string objects onto a thread

Get some beads and a string and encourage your kid to string them on to the thread.

You can also use a number of alternatives to beads such as macaroni, straws etc. Anything that can be stringed together would do. This activity can contribute a lot in developing fine motor skills in the child.

Note:

• You can use a shoelace to make stringing easier for the kid. Just make sure that the lace is clean enough for the activity.

• You can make the activity more fun by participating yourself and turning the entire thing into a competition. Whoever wins will get an extra scoop of ice-cream. Fair enough; eh?

4. Squeezing sponge

Set up two separate bowls. Fill up one with one water (say, A), and keep the other one empty (say, B).

Get a sponge, and ask your child to soak it in the bowl that’s filled with water. The idea is to transfer water back and forth between the bowls via the sponge until bowl A gets empty. Explain the very same thing to your kid such that s/he understands it thoroughly. Then ask him/her to start without any further ado.

This simple activity can really help to strengthen the hands and the forearms of the kid. You can make it more fun by adding some food dye or some bubbles.

5. Sorting coins

Ask your kid to sort out coins by piling them on top of one another.

Balancing coins do require careful hand-eye coordination; a trait that can actually improve your kid’s fine motor skills on the whole.

6. Encourage your kid to work with scissions (but ONLY under careful supervision)

Source- Flickr

Working with scissors can definitely play a major role in improving fine motor skills in the kid. So encourage your kid to get into this activity (ONLY under adult supervision) to benefit more in the long run.

Note:

The child may find it increasingly difficult to cut out things like a shape or a figure or something similar with a pair of scissors at the start. Hence, it’s advisable to start with the simplest things first. Like cutting out straw pieces from a cola straw.

So that’s it then. Just follow the tips mentioned above as closely as possible, and you’ll definitely see the results in no time. Good luck!