Fine motor skills are essential in the development of toddlers. As they grow up, these skills will improve their muscle coordination in body. There are some fun and easy DIY activities which will improve the skills in toddlers effectively.
Fine motor skills, the beginning of your kid’s development.
From a young age, it is important that toddlers train their small muscles to coordinate. This is also known as dexterity, which continues to develop intelligence at every stage of their growth. It indicates the importance of developing fine motor in young kids or toddlers.
What do these motor skills involve?
Fine motor involves coordination of small muscles like fingers, wrist, hand, toes, feet, eye level, etc. These may sound very easy and convenient, but for such young kids, it can be very challenging. As dexterity develops, there is an improvement in their learning, writing and memory skills as well.
Example: Drawing, choosing colors, buttoning, pouring water, etc.
To ensure these skills are developing at a proper pace, there are some activities to try at home. The best part is, parents can create these activities for their toddler.
10 DIY (Do It Yourself) activities to develop fine motor skills in toddlers
**Make sure you use safe objects, and your child should do these under your supervision. Also, don’t forget to take part in these fun activities.
-
Differentiating colors
What you will need: Pulses and beans of different colors.
Take 4 different color pulses and beans and put them on one large plate. Give four different bowls and ask your child to put different pulses and beans in separate containers.
You can try these with shapes too (use different kinds of pasta, but this should be the second stage as understanding shapes will be a bit harder).
What are the benefits of this exercise?
Improves vision, enhances concentration and develops intelligence.
-
Playdough stacking
What you will need: Play dough of different colors.
Cut the play dough in small parts and ask your child to make a bigger dough. In the next step, they need to put those side wise or stack up on top of one another.
What are the benefits of this exercise?
It helps to improve hand and finger muscles. It is also a good stretching workout for fingers to increase gripping strength for enhanced fine motor skills.
-
Make murals
What you will need: Foam sheets, scissors, shape and design cutouts.
Take the design layout and scissors to cut out shapes from the foam sheet. Give those shapes to your child in the tub while they take a bath. As a part of the exercise, ask them to stick it on the wall. Those shapes will easily stick on the wall, and your child will be very excited too.
What are the benefits of this exercise?
Helps to learn shapes and colors. It also improves hand and shoulder strength by sticking those shapes on the wall.
-
Flipping small bean bags with spatula
What you will need: Small bean pouches, one spatula.
Ask your child to put the small bean bag/ pouch on the spatula and flip the side. Ask them to do this exercise at least 5 times with different color bean pouches.
What are the benefits of this exercise?
This exercise helps to improve wrist movement and encourage children to learn colors faster. It is an important part of fine motor skills.
-
Catch the balloon
What you will need: Two balloons
Hold the balloons at your child’s shoulder or head high level standing at one hand distance apart. You will drop one balloon, and they have to catch the same without letting it drop on the floor. Initially, the child will miss catching, but soon they will be able to hold it.
Later, you can increase the difficulty level by decreasing the size of the balloon and lowering the height from the floor.
What are the benefits of this exercise?
It tremendously helps in improving the reflex action which will develop swiftness in their muscles for better fine motor skills.
-
Tracing with buttons
What you will need: Buttons, marker, colored paper – A4 size.
First, you need to draw some geometric lines on the paper with a marker and then ask your child to trace the lines by placing buttons on it. Once they successfully manage to do this, you can start writing letters and ask them to locate the same.
What are the benefits of this exercise?
It improves the eye and hand coordination. Moreover, toddlers will have cleaner handwork as well as improved fine motor skills.
-
Straw necklace
What you will need: 10 to 15 straws, wool.
Tie one end of the yarn with several knots so that the straw doesn’t fall out. Next, cut the straws into smaller pieces and finally, ask your child to put the straw pieces inside the thread. Lastly, tie the ends of the wool, and it will be a simple necklace.
What are the other benefits of this exercise?
It increases hand movement and also the pace.
-
Untying bows
What you will need: Ribbons and an empty paper roll.
Firstly, take an empty paper roll and tie bows loosely with those ribbons. Ask your toddler to open the knots. This might be a little confusing, so you should help him/ her time to time.
What are the benefits of this exercise?
If you want your child to have faster and sharper brain development along with fine motor skills, there is nothing better than this.
-
Picking up blocks with tong
What you will need: Blocks of different sizes and a tong
Place the blocks on the table, and your young kid will pick those with a tong and stack them on one another. Once they can do it comfortably, increase the tong size and replace the blocks with marbles.
What are the benefits of this exercise?
It betters wrist movement and gives work precision.
-
Board clip to hang handkerchiefs
What you will need: Board clips, handkerchiefs, nylon rope.
Take a piece of rope and clip the handkerchiefs on the nylon rope with board clips. Make sure they don’t pinch their fingers with the board clips.
What are the benefits of this exercise?
Improves stretching of fingers as well as strength.
If you help your toddler perform this, there are high chances they will develop several skills by the time they start school.
What are fine motor skills expected of a child entering school?
If the training is correct; then preschoolers who are planning to enter school (4 to 5 years of age) will possess some well-polished skills like:
- Shoulder stability
- Self-dressing and feeding
- Holding the pencil correctly
- Completing tasks with more precision
- Tying shoelaces
- Interlocking puzzles
- Draw complex designs with a combination of lines, circles, etc.
So, help to improve your child’s fine motor skills with the aid of these DIY activities.
Related articles include: cognitive development – physical development – social development – gross motor skills – emotional development – language development
