Motor skills, the skills that enable us to initiate and control movement, are divided into gross motor and fine motor. Gross motor and fine motor interact and overlap one another.
Fine motor skills involves the coordination of the small muscles of the hands or feet with the other senses to enable essential movements like picking up a piece of chocolate and putting it your mouth, twiddling your earlobe and turning off a switch with your toe so you don’t need to bend down.
They also help with writing, drawing, making things, typing on your keyboard, using a mouse, and just about everything else you do in life. Without them, you’d be ham-fisted, hungry and unable to do much for yourself.
Babies are born with the desire to become independent and do things for themselves. Their motor skills will develop quickly unless there is a physical disability or interference from their carers. Motor skills develop from practice, you can’t teach them but you can encourage or stifle.
Everyday activities that encourage the practice and development of fine motor skills include:
- Food – babies can hold their own food at a very early age. Eating peas with your fingers, one at a time, is one of the best activities to develop motor skills and hand-eye-mouth co-ordination. It also helps concentration and has a built in reward. Vary it with sultanas and other small finger food.
- Finger games – eg little dicky birds, finger puppets, etc
- Exploring their world – picking everyday things up and examining them, playing with your hair, trying to pull off your buttons
- Button and knick-knack bottles – taking it all out, putting it back in, sorting etc. (choose size of objects depending on age)
- Fabrics – feeling different textures of fabrics on clothing, bedding etc.
- Sand – drawing in the sand, poking finger holes etc.
- Observing and taking them seriously so you can comment on what they are doing.
and all of these are free and natural activities.
Many toys which require dexterity and so encourage the practice of motor skills include…
- Shape sorters
- Jigsaw Puzzles
- Blocks
- Drawing
- Painting
- Turning pages in books – or simply playing with a piece of paper.
- Finger painting
- Puppets, dolls and doll houses.
- Craft activities
Things that stifle development of motor skills include…
- Overuse of mittens.
- Not allowing babies and children to feed themselves and restricting their hands when they try.
- Restricting access to a variety of things they can experiment with.
- Saying “Don’t touch”, “Don’t fiddle with your hair”, “Don’t…”
Think about people who grow up in cold climates and therefore always wear shoes and socks. They have almost no fine motor skills in their toes. Compare that to people who have no hands and can do amazing things with their toes.
What are your fine motor skills like?
