Ideas to develop Fine Motor Skills in the Kindergarten age student

Many children in kindergarten benefit from additional opportunities to practice and further develop their fine motor coordination skills, to help them be more successful in school. I usually encourage families to consider fun, play based, and household activities to practice these skills. Kindergarten children should not feel like this is extra homework, but when incorporated into daily routines, they may not realize that they are helping to develop skills needed for school.

Here are examples of activities that may be helpful to develop motor skills in young children.

  1. Card/board games geared for this age child. Manipulating game pieces is good for finger coordination. If travel size games are available, they have smaller pieces that require refined control. I like using Connect 4 (travel size), jacks, shooting marbles, pick-up sticks, ker-plunk in addition to card and board games.
  2. Opportunities to use coloring books, including mazes and dot-dot activities. If a parent sits with the child, it may be easier to keep the child interested in these activities. Try to work towards improved detail in coloring such as coloring in most of the white space and staying near the lines. Most of the activities in coloring/activity books help to develop refined control needed for writing.
  3. Practice making letters and numbers from a written model. Please make sure your child is writing in a top to bottom manner. Writing from the bottom to top usually leads to writing that is much less neat.

To keep this fun, try making letters out of different materials, including thin

licorice strands, cooked spaghetti noodles, pipe cleaners, play-doh, etc. When

writing, try using different media, such as paints, finger painting, writing in shaving

cream spread out on a table, writing with chalk, etc. ( Using very small pieces of

crayon or chalk can help develop finger coordination since they need to hold it

more precisely.)

  1. Play with assembly toys reinforces the development of motor and visual perception skills. This type of play also helps to develop the strength of small hand muscles needed for many fine motor activities.
  2. Craft projects can provide several benefits for young children. Projects can be chosen based on the child’s interests. Examples can include painting wooden animal shapes, placing beads to make stained glass, decorating shirts with paints, etc. AC Moore and Michaels are two stores that have a wide selection of craft/hobby activities.
  3. Cooking and baking activities also provide many opportunities to develop motor skills, sequencing steps in a process, problem solving and creativity. Examples include helping to open packages (using scissors to cut sealed packages if needed), stirring wet and dry ingredients, using cookie cutters for cut-out cookies, spreading frosting, butter, jam, or peanut butter, pouring drinks from a small pitcher or container, rolling out dough, etc.
  4. Putting together puzzles helps to develop fine motor and visual processing skills.
  5. Play with an etch-a-sketch and magna doodle are great for this age child. If the child has used these toys in the past, try making more complex patterns. Both can be used as another way of making letters and numbers (although the etch-a-sketch is more limiting).
  6. Cutting skills can be practiced by cutting coupons from the newspaper, cutting

specific shapes from cereal and cracker boxes, and finding specific words or letters

from magazines to cut.

  1. Play activities using the larger muscles of the body can be helpful in the development of fine motor skills. When the arms, trunk and legs have good stability, strength and endurance, the hands and fingers can often show improved coordination and skill needed for writing, coloring, cutting, and other school activities. Examples include: use of playground equipment, ball throwing/catching using different size and texture balls, bike riding, roller skating/roller blading, swimming, playing hopscotch, Twister, and skip-bo.
  2. Some children benefit from opportunities to lie on their bellies (supported on their forearms) for reading, drawing, coloring, playing games and watching TV. This position is very good to build upper body strength and endurance in the trunk, neck and upper arms. Again, it is important to have a strong and stable base for the hands and fingers to develop improved skill. Try to encourage this position when possible.

Please contact me if you have questions, or would like additional suggestions for home activities.

Kelly Stewart, OTR/L

DerryTownshipSchool District

Occupational Therapist

531-2211 ext. 5438