In these times, children are more easily acquainted with technological devices than they are with fine motor skills. But if there is one skill that is important for children to equip themselves with for their daily life activities, it is fine motor skills.
This article will enlighten you on fine motor skills and how to help your children develop them.
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Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills are movements that involve you using the small muscles in the wrists and hands. As unnoticeable as it is, it is a part of the major and essential things we do in our daily lives.
Fine motor skills are used in activities like:
- Buttoning up your shirt and tying your shoelace
- Taking a bath
- Brushing
- Drawing, Writing, and painting
- Cutting and tearing
The list is endless, and to know more, you can take notes of the things that involve you using the muscles in your wrists.
How to Develop Fine Motor Skills With crafts
As important as these skills are, you might not know things to do to improve them. The same way we exercise to build our biceps and other muscles is how we use crafts to exercise and develop fine motor skills.
Below is a list of things to do to help develop your child’s motor skills:
Enroll them in good learning centers.
As much as parents will beg to disagree, experts who have taught children repeatedly are more skilled in teaching fine motor skills development. Even though parents can help practice some crafts when they are at home, it is good to have the professionals at early learning centers play their parts in helping also.
Practice the fun crafts with them
Children are more susceptible to learning when you play with them or help them with the tasks. This is a list of crafts to play with to help children hone their fine motor skills:
- Painting: Your kids don’t have to paint a perfect picture; as long as they are making an effort to hold the brush and they are exercising their hands, it is a step in the right direction.
- Making a garden: Digging and planting seeds helps them hone different motor skills, including fine and gross motor skills. While gardening, they pick up trowels, transfer growing seeds, and grasp things.
- Kneading clay: By chance, if you have clay soil in your garden or backyard, you can help knead the clay to get shapes and letters.
Give them crafty chores
Children do not like being idle, and the best way to make them work is to give them exciting chores. These chores can be or similar to:
- Picking up buttons: Buttons are usually round and small; picking them up will require coordination and use of wrist strength.
- Helping in the kitchen: Kneading and rolling dough, mixing batter, and doing light lifting will help develop their fine motor skills. While doing this, you should start by giving them tiny portions so as not to overwhelm them.
Your children can learn while having fun, and the time spent with them is also good for bonding. Explore more tasks and crafts that might help. It is a matter of time before they get hold of it and do it without stress.
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