Fine Motor Skills
Recently I had some interesting conversations with my older children’s Kindergarten teacher and with Drew’s preschool teacher. Both of them commented to me that they have a higher number of children in their classrooms who have little or no experience using scissors. Some are even unaware of what to do with Play-Doh. At first I was surprised, but then I realized that in this digital age, young children know more about Pokemon, video games and computers than they do about coloring, cutting and forming shapes in Play-Doh.
Naturally there are exceptions and not all parents are allowing their children’s fine motor muscles to atrophy. At the same time, I see more and more young children playing videos games and watching TV than those who are cutting, pasting and coloring. I have watched the Legos section shrink while the video game section grow larger in some of the stores I frequent. That, to me, says there is a trend.
I can guarantee you that I am not the crafty mom. Matter-of-fact, I have often chastised myself because my children don’t do more crafts at home. I’m am more apt to sit down to read books with my children, build with Legos or go out and play. I see other homes where they obviously do crafts by the hours. Their homes are covered in their children’s creations and craft supplies. Not mine.
What I can also guarantee is that my just turned 4-year-old can use scissors, knows all about Play-Doh, and loves to build with Legos alongside her siblings. Drew knows how to put a DVD into our machine and she can navigate a Leapster with the best in her peer group. She is by no means deprived of those skills in this digital age. At the same time, she has entered preschool with strong fine motor skills and an age appropriate knowledge of crafts and the tools they require.
All of my children have entered preschool and Kindergarten able to cut, draw, write and play with Play-Doh. Obviously we do not need to be swimming in craft projects to assure our children are developing their fine motor skills. It truly does not take more than a can of Play-Doh, finger foods and some building blocks for your toddler to work on his fine motor skills.
Other fine motor activities for toddlers, include:
- Play-Doh (recipes)
- Playing with blocks
- Stringing items on a string
- Finger foods
- Finger painting (try a variety of mediums)
- Painting with a paintbrush
- Building with Duplo (or similar) blocks
- Using tweezers
- Using a medicine or eye dropper
- Putting shapes into a shape sorter
- Tearing paper
Always remember to supervise your toddler, not only for safety but for the fun bonding time, too. Toddlers begin to demand their independence but they are truly inter-dependent and need the adults in their lives to share in their fun.
For more information on fine motor skills for toddlers:
Developing Fine Motor Skills @ YeahBaby.com
For week-by-week developmentally appropriate activities:
Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June Oberlander
For a variety of activities, including fine motor:
Things to Do with Toddlers and Twos by Karen Miller
© Copyright 2007 Rebecca Wilson. All Rights Reserved.
Used with permission.
fine motor skills, milestones for toddlers, toddler development
September 27th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
My son is seven and would rather talk about plays he made on game cube than in his actual game saturday. I tried to balance his motoer skills with whatever electronic game he might be playing. i really hope to be more determined about motor skill activities with our next little one.
September 29th, 2007 at 2:24 am
Bryan, if you were aware enough to make the effort to balance your son’s game playing with other developmental skills, you were doing an excellent job of helping your son develop his fine motor skills. You’ll do great with your next little one, too.
October 15th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
[...] Bryan brought up a great point that has been on my list to write about when he said, “I tried to balance his motor skills with whatever electronic game he might be playing. I really hope to be more determined about motor skill activities with our next little one.” Bryan, if you were aware enough to make the effort to balance your son’s game playing with other developmental skills, you were doing an excellent job of helping your son develop his fine motor skills. [...]