Fine Motor Skills for 5yo Boy

[knitgrl]

I just started doing kindergarten with ds who will be 5 very soon. He is very boy, and his large motor skills are great. I am not concerned about any learning issues; I consider him to be pretty average in terms of academics, such as they are at this age. His fine motor skills need work. He rarely takes up a pencil, crayons or markers on his own. He has no interest in coloring right now, though he has done so in the past without complaint. If I ask him to draw something, he says he can't do it. I think he compares his efforts to his sisters, one is 4 years older and the other is 18 months younger, but draws a lot. If I can coax him to start with a circle for a face and I praise him, he seems pleased with himself. His pencil grip is usually ok, but his strokes often lack pressure and end up wiggly. I am using Spalding with him, and when I present letters to him and have him practice, it is usually in a tray of cornmeal.

I am not worried per se, but I am looking for ways to help him develop better fine motor skills. Any suggestions will be most welcome.

[Tanaqui]

There are many commercial games out there that require tweezers. That would help build the same skills. What about playing with small legos or play-dough or ripping and gluing paper in collages? Sorting buttons? Putting coins in a penny bank or charity box? Stringing beads or lacing shoes?

[knitgrl]

Small legos and play dough go over well, and we do those on a regular basis. Ripping paper is tolerated, but gluing and scissors are welcome activities. I haven't tried stringing beads or lacing lately, those might be tolerated as well. He has zero patience for sorting. He likes money -- the piggy bank is a good idea!

[sweet2ndchance]

Would he tolerate watching youtube art videos? The Art For Kids Hub has a youtube channel where you can watch and follow along for free. Perhaps if he could get step by step directions on how to draw something that interests him and see other kids drawing and all the wiggly lines and imperfections they make, it might encourage him to try? My 5 year old LOVES this youtube channel but he doesn't have issues at all with fine motor skills.

Another hit for my current 5yo has been the Ed Emberley art books. Simple, step by step line drawings that he can easily replicate. 

Edited August 10, 2018 by sweet2ndchance

[displace]

Hide beads or beans in a blob of playdoh for him to find (can be made into a math activity too).  Teach how to fold paper for airplanes.  Get window markers to write abc on windows.  Cut into a tennis ball half across to make a “mouth” and have the mouth “eat” Legos or beans with a hand squeezing it to open.  Play with model magic.  Play with clay.

My DS never liked open ended projects.  So I’d have to give him tasks- make a sword out of clay, cut a paper ninja out, make a LEGO tree and dinosaur.  Do fun pencil activities like dot to dot or mazes.  

[CTVKath]

My son was in kindergarten last year and he wasn't interested in coloring, cutting, pasting or anything I did with my daughter. He also held a pencil/crayon with a fist so I didn't even begin teaching him letters until March when he could finally hold the pencil correctly (or at least not with a fist). I found a ton of good ideas for him from a kindergarten teacher blogger called "differentiated kindergarten". She tells about and shows pictures of her monthly morning work activities which include a lot of fun fine motor skill activities. And for every month, she usually has some of them as freebies to print out. Some of the ones my son enjoyed most were the pokey pin activities (push pin on a paper design), finding treasures in theraputty (different treasure every month!!! and the theraputty started as the soft variety and got harder throughout the year) and then counting/sorting them, different activities every month for using tongs, etc. She also has a fine motor skill box she puts together at the beginning of the year and sends home with 1 student at a time for 2-weeks. Some of those activities were good but I can't remember what they were. Once my son was capable of holding a writing utensil not in a fist, he really liked using a fat Expo dry erase marker (orange!!!) in a dry erase maze book. It's by Usborne. "Wipe Clean Mazes". He did the whole book every day for awhile. I also bought a variety of plastic tongs for serving appetizers and let him use those to eat at dinner for a few months. Hope this helps!

[Rosie_0801]

Check him for a retained palmar reflex. That gets in the way of fine motor skills.

[nixpix5]

Montessori fine motor activities work wonders. If you Google you will find a number of ideas. One great one is use a few bowls or small containers and mix 3 color of beads or pom poms in a bowl. Give him a pair of plastic tweezers and have him sort colors into 3 different containers. There are tons of these fine motor activities and the fun part is you can theme them to match what you are reading or learning about. You can use mixed dried beans to sort as well.

Another good one is metal insets or pin poking crafts...also a Montessori thing. All of Montessori early childhood focuses on preparing kids for the fine motor needs for elementary.  

[mmasc]

My DSs liked many of these activities, especially the one where you lace a shoestring through something that’s been hole-punched (elephant pic). One DS also didn’t care for coloring or writing, but he liked the Do A Dot pages a lot and the laminated pages that you write on with dry erase markers (lines-slanted, curvy, zig-zag, etc)

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2014/05/kindergarten-activities.html

Definitely look at the game Sneaky Snacky Squirrel! We used it at that age and it was so fun AND helps with fine motor skills!

https://smile.amazon.com/Educational-Insights-Sneaky-Snacky-Squirrel/dp/B00486ZVC4/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1534102635&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=sneaky+snacky+squirrel+game&dpPl=1&dpID=51PNuv%2B9VUL&ref=plSrch

ETA: I thought of another one they *loved*! Print out any letter pages where the letter(s) are big and plain font. Then with a wooden skewer (or oversized push pin) let him punch holes through the outline of the letter. We did it sitting on carpet. 

Another thing they liked was super simple too. I took a big Nesquik can with a plastic lid, drilled some holes in the lid, and gave them a big ‘ol pack of straws. They’d sit there and push the straws through the holes. It’s simple but they loved it!

 

Edited August 12, 2018 by mmasc

[MarieCurie]

No suggestions just commiseration. My almost 5 year old son also lacks fine motor skills, and doing any fine motor activities that involves small objects is impossible because little sister still puts things in her mouth.

[extendedforecast]

My son was exactly as you describe, down to the sudden refusal to color and light squiggly writing. I recommend many of the things suggested already, including stickers, scissor activities, sorting small objects, and play dough. What seemed to make the most impact from my observations was assembling Lego sets. I started by doing most of the work, asking him to help find pieces for me to put together. Then I’d ask him to get started on a set and call me when he needed help. At first I needed to stay close by, but after a while he really took off on his own. By this point he was more willing to practice handwriting. He continued writing lightly and slightly squiggly because of how he was holding the pencil. He was intentionally keeping his hand off the paper while writing because he doesn’t like the feel of paper. I’ve since found paper that he can tolerate, and once he was able to plant his hand down, his writing improved quite a bit. We continue practicing handwriting still because I really backed off when it was obvious he wasn’t ready physically. I think he’ll really get it down this year, as I plan to back off a lot on writing for him as much as I did in the past. Hope this helps!

[knitgrl]

On 8/10/2018 at 6:43 PM, sweet2ndchance said:

Another hit for my current 5yo has been the Ed Emberley art books. Simple, step by step line drawings that he can easily replicate. 

I just checked out an Ed Emberley face book from the library. He was resistant to it, but we did it together on a small white board. He would draw one part, and I drew the next. We did two pages of faces together. Who knew Ed Emberley could be part of a curriculum?