As I’ve said before, Nevaeh has some issues with fine motor skills. She fist grips her pencil and has trouble with a few other fine motor activities. In order to get that where it needs to be the occupational therapist has been working with her and gave me a list of things to work on over the summer to help build strength and dexterity in her finger and hand muscles. I thought I would pass along the activities she suggested so you can work on them with your kids too!
- Rolling dough into small balls using the tips of the fingers with playdoh or clay
- Rolling dough into balls using the palms of the hands with playdoh or clay
- Making designs in playdoh or clay with toothpicks
- Cut playdoh with plastic knife or pizza wheel
- Tearing newspaper into strips and using for art project
- Crumpling newspaper into balls and using for art project
- Using a trigger type water bottle to spray plants or have a water fight
- Use tweezers or tongs to pick up small objects such as cotton balls, cheerios, or marshmallows
- Shake dice with hands cupped together in games
- Lacing cheerios or similar cereal, macaroni, or buttons onto yarn, string, pipe cleaners, or licorice strings
- Putting together and taking apart nuts and bolts
- Turning coins, playing cards, checkers, or buttons on table without bringing them to the edge of the table
- Play finger games or finger puppets
- Play with finger paints, add sawdust, sand, or coffee grounds for extra texture
- Playing with toys that have tools ex-workbench with screwdriver, wrench, etc
- Painting with a paintbrush with a large handle
- Drawing and painting on vertical surface, either an easel or paper taped to the wall
- Writing/drawing on a Magna Doodle
- Putting stickers in sticker book on a picture or on vertical or horizontal lines
- Putting together large simple puzzles
- Playing dress up and practice with large buttons and zippers
- Try to get a coin or other object from the palm of hand to fingertips without using the other hand or body
- Put coins in a coin bank
And I have a couple of my own: pick up some cheap attached chop sticks, give very small pencils, markers, or pieces of chalk to write with.
I plan on doing at least one of these activities each day this summer with Nevaeh to get those fine motor skills where they need to be, plus this stuff is just fun!
