Helping your child improve upon their fine motor skills is crucial for their overall development because they are skills necessary for a huge range of daily tasks. For example, you need fine motor skills to be able to handle cutlery when eating a meal or to tie up your shoelaces. There are lots of ways you can help your child develop these skills, as explored below by a prep school in Buckinghamshire.
Get Creative
Arts and crafts are a great way to help your child strengthen the small muscles in their hands, wrists, and fingers because a lot of careful control is required when painting, colouring, and cutting. With that said, try and get your child to explore their creative side from time to time to help with their fine motor abilities. Playing with play dough and clay are other great options because your child will use their hands and fingers when moulding.
Encourage Independence
It can be tempting to help your child with various activities, like brushing their hair, but it’s actually better to give them some independence to do these tasks independently. You might need to set your alarm a little earlier, but lots of the tasks involved in getting dressed in the morning require good fine motor skills, so let your child do these on their own.
Play Board Games
Board games require the player to manipulate tiny items across the board, which involves the use of fine motor skills. With that said, play lots of board games with your child so that they can practise. Jigsaws also have the same effect, so try these too. As well as supporting your child’s fine motor development, these types of activities are great for helping them with other important skills too, like problem-solving and critical thinking.
*This is a collaborative post.
