Fine Motor Development

Fine Motor Development of preschoolers
 
What is fine motor skill?
Fine motor skills are the skills involving visual-motor (hand-eye coordination) in conjunction with the hands and fingers.
As defined by Wikipedia:
“Fine motor skill is the coordination of small muscles in movement with the eyes, usually involving the synchronization of hands and fingers. The complex levels of manual dexterity that humans exhibit can be attributed to and demonstrated in tasks controlled by the nervous system”
Fine motor development begins at infancy, and you may be surprised to learn-involves the proximal parts of the body (shoulders, joints, forearms, and spine). 
Examples of fine motor skills:

• Turning doorknobs, keys, locks
• Buttoning and unbuttoning clothes
• Fastening snaps and buckles
• Tying shoes
• Brushing teeth
• Drawing and writing

Activities and ways to support fine motor development:
Several studies have suggested that visual motor integration can promote more coordination of movement and faster development of fine motor abilities. How can parents and teachers provide visual motor integration?  Through many different games and activities that involve hand eye coordination along with use of the small muscle groups such as fingers and hands.
 

The following  is a list of activities to help promote fine motor skill development. Or you can download the pdf here: fine motor activities
Activities to help promote fine motor skill development:
 
Arts and Crafts Activities Drawing, Writing, Painting, cutting
 Use different sizes and various writing and drawing tools such as paintbrushes, broken crayons, pencils, pens, etc. and hole-punchers and scissors.

​Pouring & Measuring Fun
Activities that involve pouring this can be helping cook or just a simple “sensory bin” (medium to large plastic container filled with rice, beans, sand, or water) provide variety of tools like spoons, cups and measuring cups.

​Fingerplays & Songs
Gestures such as rain falling, or apple picking
 
Balloon Fun
Balloon tennis, catching small balloons, tossing balloons through a hula hoop

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Fine Motor boxes

Fine motor boxes
To make a fine motor box cut slits into the top a plain shoebox (can be bought at a craft store), paint or color each slit and matching popsicle stick (child will match the color and place stick in slit).  Old scrabble pieces can be used to match the letters and place tile in slit. *Think coin into a piggy bank activity but with some cognitive thinking involved.
 
Other activities
Catch the ball in the basket, crab walk
 
 
There are several more ways and activities, these are just a few but a good start and mentioned the most in research on fine motor development.