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Fine motor skills


lulalu
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I need help with ideas for strengthening fine motor skills.

 

Ds is 5 and still does not color in the lines. We have the rod and staff k workbooks and his lines are not straight. I don't want to work on writing letters or numbers yet as it is just frustrating.

 

But I need some ideas for activities to do and how often to do it etc. We don't have excess to bead to string or other preschool type supplies. It has to be doable at home.

 

Also- should I be alarmed at this age? His coloring is still just scribbles, he can make a rough circle but it is very bumpy, he will "write" notes that are scribbled that look like small mountain type things (vvvvvv kinda)

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Do you do any work with dough-- either bread dough or homemade salt dough?

 

We used to string cheerios and pasta instead of beads.

 

If you have clothespins or tweezers, you can invent games to play in which you have to take turns picking up objects.

 

Squeezing glue (or whatever else you can squeeze) is helpful, too.

 

Does your son like cutting things? Tearing things up?

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We did a variety of activities to strengthen fine motor skills:

 

Rolling paper strips

Tweezer play (I also got connected chopsticks to extend this, but you can make your own with a plain set, rubber band, and paper wad spacer)

Eye droppers (playing with food coloring)  I used old medicine droppers.

Finger writing in cornmeal

Sign language

Folding activities

Playdoh

Spray bottles

Finger painting

Watercolor painting

Lacing cardboard shapes (make your own with a shoelace and hole punch)

Chalk

Legos

Monkey bars/playground equipment - okay, this one isn't hand/wrist, but strengthens the rest of the arm needed to support the hand.  Strong shoulders means less stress on the hand.  On that note, strong abs are needed, too.

 

 

We did a fine motor skill activity every day, building up to writing a single letter in chalk (the resistance allows for more control), and then from a letter to a word....but I wasn't touching actual writing until all the pre-skills were down pat.  I worked them in to whatever our theme was at the time. Many were left out for free play on the tables around the house.

 

Last night I read this article: Losing Our Grip and it made me realize how odd focusing on fine motor skills is becoming.  2 out of 20 K students having hand strength for scissors? I'm actually stunned. 

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I would say you want to do something every day. Ideally these will be everyday tasks or REALLY easy activities. I like Home Agains list.

Teach him to snap, some kids get hooked on trying and will walk around trying to snap.

Sign Language

Making and rolling dough.

Tearing up a cereal/snack box OR just paper. Just take one and flatten it, then make several starter cuts and let him pull and tear the box apart. Following from HomeAgain you can then roll the strips and put a piece of tape on them. Use them for play food.

Using safety pins to pin two handkerchiefs or socks together.

Tying lace into bows.

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SKL- that has been on my mind. My dh had fine motor delays and needed glasses at 6 years. But at the moment we don't have access to a specialist (part of the expat life) although we will soon be traveling so maybe I can set something up then.

 

I just don't know what age to "worry" and the balance between him being a boy. His large motor skills have no worries there!

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Love the nuts and bolts idea!

 

Make sure to incorporate lots of large-muscle play in his day--running, jumping, climbing, swinging...anything that strengthens core muscles and gross motor muscles. These are incredibly important to handwriting. (Many people think of handwriting as a fine motor activity, but it's the gross motors--the trunk muscles that hold the body up so kids don't lean on their arms as they write, the shoulder and arm muscles that control arm movements etc... that are really important). 
 
Mazes, dot-to-dot, coloring, legos, playing with cars, cutting, pasting, painting etc... are good for reinforcing fine-motor skills needed.
 

 

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Most of these activities we do regularly- I am adding in something each day now to help. We have an appointment set up for when we are in Istanbul with a specialist to check it out. I just think he may have what my dh struggled with.

 

What program is good for learning letters and numbers for kids who have fine motor delays? I had thought of teaching cursive before print. Is that helpful for those with delays? My goal now is by the age of 6 to write his name at least.

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What program is good for learning letters and numbers for kids who have fine motor delays? I had thought of teaching cursive before print. Is that helpful for those with delays? My goal now is by the age of 6 to write his name at least.

 

If you can get them, School Rite writing guides are fabulous.  They're like stencils, encouraging proper formation and placement of letters - and giving kids the ability to write before their motor skills may have caught up completely.

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Handwriting without Tears was designed by (I think) an occupational or physical therapist and has kids write really big, using chalk, before trying it on paper, and they also make letters out of wood pieces so that they can learn before they can write. I used to give my kids a dry erase marker and let them write on the sliding glass door so that they'd have a big surface (butcher paper or 11/13 paper might also work). Kumon sells some inexpensive cutting workbooks, where kids can practice cutting lines, zigzags, etc. One of my kids liked maze books, and the other liked dot-to-dot. We also practiced dribbling a basketball and catching a nerf ball, which was more fun than school work but still good hands practice.

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I have never liked the looks of HWOT, but I did have trainng with it years ago. I learned a lot there. I might just need to get over the sight aspect. I kinda wish there was something like that for teaching cursive first.

 

There are a lot of parts and cost to it though.....

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