These suggestions cannot not and should not take the place of medical services. Be sure to check with your child's doctor before trying any of the activities or using any of the strategies listed. Occupational Therapy is a medical services, that requires a doctor's referral. If you feel like your child may benefit from services, speak to your doctor.
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Once you have a good understanding the development of grasp and functional gross grasp, precision and prehension patterns, it's very easy to figure out everyday activities that can work on these skills. But here is a cheat sheet of some activities (by skill) that you can do to work on fine motor skills.
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Printables, Activities & Resources for Fine Motor Skills
Making printable resources for teachers to integrate fine motor skills into academic targets is my forte! I love making simple activities that can be used for independent centers or individual work stations - that add fine motor strengthening, control, precision and coordination to ELA and Math tasks. Check out my Teachers Pay Teachers page for a huge variety of freebies and products by clicking on the image to the left.
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OMerGerd! Pinterest!
If you haven't figured it out already - Pinterest is an AH-MAZE-ING place for fine motor activities. You'll need to sign up for an account, but it is well worth that 5 seconds. There are great ideas for home activities, classroom projects and even holiday crafts that work on fine motor skills development. Here's some links to my Pinterest Boards for Fine Motor Activities.
Simple, Easy Fine Motor Activities
Activities to Improve Hand Strength
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- Using Clothespins: writing letters or word on clothespins then having child "hand" a word or a sentence on a line; using clothespins as "counters" for math activities; using clothespins to decorate crafts or art projects
- Cutting Activities: cutting through thick paper, such as cardboard, cardstock or oak tag; cutting through playdoh or putty
- Squeezing Activities: squeezing fruit to make fresh juice; squeezing exercises with a stress ball; using a turkey baister or nasal aspirator for play activities (i.e. water play); using "squirt toys" in the bathtub; using a spray bottle to help with classroom or household chores
- Using a manual sharpener to sharpen pencils
Activities to Promote Separation of Radial/Ulnar Sides of the Hand; In-Hand Manipulation and Coordination Skills
- Cutting tasks, such as cutting coupons, snowflakes or paperdolls
- Chinese Stress Balls
- Pencil Races (using index and middle finger and thumb to "walk" fingers up and down the base of the pencil as fast as possible without dropping pencil)
- Moving small items (coins, paperclips, etc.) from the palm to the fingertips
- Rotating small items within the hand
Activities to Improve Functional Grasp and Precision Patterns
- All of the activities listed above
- Using 2-3 inch crayons and pencils for tasks
- Finger puppets
- Bubble ("packaging") wrap
- Legos (the smaller, the better), stacking blocks and tinker toys
- Using small stamps and small sticker for craft projects
- Playing with marbles
- Playing "finger soccer" (using you index and thumb to flick a cotton ball between "teams")
- Using Cheerios, macaroni or small beads to lace necklaces
- Making friendship braclets or lanyards (Patterns are available at artisthelpingchildren.org
Great Family Games to Promote Fine Motor Skills
- Connect4
- LiteBrite
- Checkers, Chess or Chinese Checkers
- Operation
- Bed Bugs
- Don't Break the Ice
- Ants in the Pants
- Hungry Hippos
- HiHo Cherry-O
- Topple
- Perfection
- Jenga
- Don't Spill the Beans
- Mr. Mouth
- Battleship