Fine Motor Development and Writing

As part of our Kindergarten Program, you may hear the phrase "fine motor" or "fine motor skills" tossed around quite a bit. Many people realize what this means, but many more do not realize the implications that fine motor development has on other areas of your child's education. As I like to think, we are not educating just the mind, but the whole child.

Fine motor development, in our program, refers to the hand. It talks about how strong a child's hand is, how coordinated their movements are, how precise they can be when doing small tasks, and how they hold and use writing instruments. The key to this, is the end of that sentence: "how they hold and use writing instruments".

We say that every skill is progressive-- your child cannot learn how to add if they have yet to count. They cannot write phonetically if they do not yet know their letters. They cannot kick a ball if they have a hard time standing on one foot. For writing, the first step is to develop the strength, precision and coordination in your child's hand so that they are able to hold a pencil, control the pencil with the proper movements and strengthen their grip so they can do this for an extended period of time (i.e. to write a sentence, vs being tired after writing their name).

I truly believe that no child can "over develop" their fine motor abilities. There is always something else they can explore or do. As well, I have yet to see a fine motor activity that simply teaches fine motor skills and does not work on other areas (math, language, science and technology, etc). As a result, fine motor is seen throughout our classroom in a variety of ways and in nearly every centre. You will see different sized writing instruments at the creative centre, you will see a variety of paint brushes at the painting areas, you will see playdough and tools at the fine motor table, you will see beads and string at the math area, and it goes on and on.

How do you know if your child is still working towards developing these skills? There are a few things that usually jump out when looking at a child's fine motor development. First, look at their writing. Are the movements confident, or are they shaky? Do they hold the writing tool in a way that allows them the freedom to move across the paper and create their strokes correctly? When using a zipper, can they put the zipper together? Are they able to pick up small objects successfully (pennies, small legos, beads)? Can they use their hand muscles for simple activities like opening yogurt (pudding lids are tricky for adults!) or breaking apart two blocks that are stuck together? If any of these items bring up a possible no, or if you are concerned about your child's fine motor development, here are some activities you can do at home to help your child develop the grip and strength they need to be successful future writers!

1. Have your child pick up pennies from a table and put them in a jar.
2. See if your child can use one hand to put wooden clothes pins. These can be used to pick up toys, hang up baby clothes for dolls, or even as a game to put on the edge of a bucket.
3. Allow your child opportunities to bead with string and beads that are difficult, but not impossible or frustrating, for them to use.
4. Give your child a chance to paint and draw with a variety of tools.
5. Make some playdough (there are several easy, no-bake recipes, such as this one) and have your child explore it.
6. Have your child play a game where they put pom-poms into a jar using tweezers.
7. Allow exploration with legos or other snap-together building blocks.
8. Have your child use scissors at home. Scissor skills help to strengthen hand muscles and work with precision. Scissors are not just for paper! Try using them with playdough or clay.
9. Have a bucket of bolts and nuts that can be manipulated.
10. Practice doing up and undoing buttons and snaps.

Happy practicing!