Did you know that fine motor skills are essential for children’s development during preschool and elementary school years? In young children, fine motor skills for example, are a requisite for performing self-care tasks and activities such as block building and puzzle play. During preschool and early school years, fine motor skills facilitate participation in learning and mastering many learning tasks.

As parents, homeschoolers and teachers, we all play an important role in our children’s fine motor skills development. The most important thing we can do is to provide as many opportunities that are fun and interactive for our littles to work on developing their fine motor skills.

Developing fine motor skills in early childhood education helps build the foundation for important future skills like writing and self-care. Furthermore, The ability to complete self-care and everyday tasks helps build a child’s self-esteem and confidence.

What are Fine Motor Skills?

Fine motor skills are the coordination of groups of small muscles to complete a task or to participate in an activity.

These muscle groups are concentrated in three main areas: 

•  The face (which includes the mouth, the eyes, and the ears.)
• The hands
• The feet 

In the preschool or early years setting, when we talk about fine motor skills, our focus is on the small muscles in the hands. Hence, fine motor skills are the ability to make movements using the small muscles in our hands and wrists.

Many researchers have acknowledged the importance of fine motor development and have included fine motor skills as a component for school readiness. They believe that a child’s ability to meet academic demands, be attentive, participate in-class activities, and become an independent student weighs heavily on their fine motor abilities. 

Examples of when we use fine motor skills:

• Holding a pen or pencil
• Pushing Lego blocks together (and pulling them apart)
• Manipulating play dough
• Getting dressed with belts, buttons, zippers and snaps
• Using silverware while eating
• Opening and closing latches
• Drawing pictures and writing neatly
• Using a keyboard
• Using scissors, rulers, and other tools
• Daily tasks like getting dressed and brushing our teeth.

How are fine motor skills developed?

Fine motor skills start developing in infancy and keep improving as children get older. Children do not all develop fine motor skills at the same pace. However, there are milestones they usually reach at different ages.
For instance, at age 5 or 6, children are able to copy shapes and letters and use a spoon or fork with ease. At age 7 or 8, they can usually tie shoes and manipulate buttons and zippers on their own.

How to tell when a child is having difficulty coordinating the small muscles in their hands?

Children who have difficulty coordinating the small muscle groups in their hands have difficulty buttoning, zipping, tying shoes, dressing, feeding themselves, manipulating pencils, crayons, scissors and practising good hygiene. Fine motor deficits impact self-care skills needed at home or school. This difficulty of fine motor ability in young children at times hinders them from meeting some of the demands of school. At times, when a child is unable to complete a task that requires using the fine motors, they can become frustrated and avoid the activity altogether because they feel it is too difficult a task for them. (This is all based on the child’s ability to complete age-appropriate tasks.)
As parents, at times we can become overly concerned when our littles are unable to complete a task when compared to an older sibling or peer. Remember! Children develop at their own pace, so please do not stress yourself out. Do not expect your little one to be able to make straight lines and hold their pencil correctly when they’re two years old.

How do we know when a child is proficient with fine motor skills?

A child is said to be proficient with fine motor skills if they can efficiently and successfully complete age-appropriate fine motor tasks and activities. Proficient motor skills help a child transition to the academic demands encountered when beginning school. Proficiency in fine motor skills, such as cutting, glueing, colouring, writing, and folding, provide a strong foundation upon which a student may build future academic abilities.

Did you know?

To avoid negative impacts of fine motor skills, a foundation for fine motor must be built. 

As educators, we must begin to look at the development of motor plans. A motor plan is an organizational piece of a fine motor task (such as cutting or folding) that allows the task to be successfully completed. A child must first understand the task at hand and then identify the movements that will be needed to complete the task. Next, the child must, with assistance, plan the sequence of the movements. Finally, the movements must be executed in an efficient manner.

For example, in writing, a student must have:

• The awareness of where the arms and hands are in space. (kinesthesia)
• Stable joints above the hand.
• Hand manipulation skills to hold the pencil and control the hand.
• The ability to track the letters and words being written.
• The ability to cross the midline of the body.
• Coordination of both sides of the body.

All of these must simultaneously occur in order for a child to write.

However, before beginning to write letters or words, a child must be able to hold and manipulate a writing tool. This process is facilitated by a proper pencil grasp. A tripod grip is the ideal grasp where the thumb and pointer finger grasp the pencil with an open web space, while the pencil rests on the middle finger.  

With a proper pencil grasp in place, stamina and hand muscle strength will continue to develop. Time and effort should be taken to ensure proper pencil grasp. 

Why do we need to ensure our littles are learning the correct pencil grasp?

 Improper pencil grasp can:

• Contribute to hand fatigue.
• Can make handwriting more difficult to execute.
• Can drastically affect the speed in handwriting.

Activities to Develop Fine Motor Skills

ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES

• Tracing
• Colouring/drawing
• Painting
• Writing
• Activities with snap cubes
• Play dough activities
• Posting activities
• Sorting objects with tongs/tweezers
• Weaving
• Sewing

FREE PLAY ACTIVITIES

• Puzzles
• Threading / lacing activities
• Building with blocks
• Dressing dolls
• Sticker activity ages
• Playing with sponges in water
• Water play
• Spooning
• Gardening and planting

SELF-CARE ACTIVITIES

• Brushing hair and teeth
• Eating and cutting food.
• Buttoning and zipping toys or shirts and jackets.
• Tying shoelaces

Materials to incoporate into activities with little ones in order to develop fine motor skills.

• Pom poms: Small movements are required to grasp them, pick them up, and move them. They work on hand-eye coordination.
• Buttons: Work on finger Strength.
• Paper clips: Require finger movements in order to manipulate them.
• Clothes pegs: Work on finger strength.
• Rubber bands: Work on finger strength.
• Tweezers / Tongs: Require hand-eye coordination in order to manipulate.
• Play dough: Great for kneading, pushing and rolling.
• Straws: Can be cut down and used as beads for threading.
• Pipe cleaners: Can be threaded and poked.
• Eye droppers: Work on pincer grasp.
• Stickers: Work on hand control.
• Syringes: Work small muscles in hands with control.
• Hole Punch: Works on muscle strength.

Let us keep in mind that our role as educators in the acquisition of fine motor skills, delays or deficits is to provide our children with countless opportunities to work on their fine motor skills. Remember that practice makes perfect. Yes! repetition is key when helping our littles to acquire any skill.

Let us get creative in providing our littles with a variety of activities and materials that will aid in the development of their fine motors. For those busy moms like myself, start small with one intentional fine motor activity per week or incorporate fine motor aspects into your learning activities.

I do hope you find the information in this article useful. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us by sending us a message or visiting us @learning.stepbystep on Instagram, Learning Step By Step on Facebook and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for educational resources that will help you and your littles on their learning journey as they continue to Learn Step By Step!

Thank you for being here!

Kimberlee and the Learning Step By Step Team.