Most children crawl before they walk, and these activities are some of the foundation skills of writing. Children don’t wake up one day ready to write. Writing has so many parts, so many factors, so many muscles involved, and developing this takes time.

Children’s hands do not develop properly for writing from the moment they are born. This takes time and all children develop these skills at different times and rates, there is no rushing child to write but these activities lay the foundation. The Victorian Government defines fine motor skills as, “Fine motor refers to the group of skills involved in the ability to manipulate smaller objects with the hands and fingers, for example, grasping, holding and pinching.”

Developing fine motor skills allow children to improve the quality of outcomes in a range of daily tasks and the speed at which they can perform them. This develops from birth until children are 8 years of age and is essential in developing the ability to write effectively.

This goes wider than writing too and can include ⁣

cutting⁣
dressing⁣
construction skills⁣
eating⁣
self care

But the thing is, we can focus on the fine motor skills all we want, but if our children have yet to develop the gross motor skills to allow them to complete the fine motor task, it won’t work. Gross motor muscles develop first, think large muscles for big movements. Then the fine motor skills can develop from there. So while these activities are great for fine motor, don’t neglect gross motor development, want some tips to develop this? Click here. Additionally, fine motor skills go further than just finger strength to include, the whole hand, pincer grip, and pincher grip.

Remember: as with all childhood development processes children will do it in the time they are ready we cannot rush it, however, what we can do is help develop it by providing a prepared environment and presenting invitations to play that engage the muscles of the hands. ⁣

1.Sensory play

Hear me out, this doesn’t seem to link straight away, but it will. Think with your dry sensory bases (rice, chickpeas, pasta) the scooping, pouring, and pincer grip required to pick up these pieces. Whereas with your wet bases (oobleck, water) it is all about running your fingers through the base, and there are still opportunities to scoop and pour! Add some tongs, some small cups and you are on to a winner.

This is a great option for child-led play while still targeting fine motor skills and there is really no right or wrong way for your child to complete this, plus there is no right or wrong way for you to set it up. The biggest issue with setup is setting up for the mess! Consider placing the tray on a table or a mat, and this is your child’s ‘work space’, and the base is not allowed to leave this space. This isn’t a foolproof solution more a boundary you can work towards with your child. Other than that, put the tub out, add a few tongs, cups or scoops and let them go! Even better, let your child raid the kitchen cupboard for what they would like to add, there is no need for a theme or expensive toys for this to work as a play activity and a learning experience.

2.Finger painting

Why finger painting and not straight onto using a paintbrush? Because there are so many small muscles involved in using a paintbrush, but if a child can point then they can finger paint!

This is a great prewriting activity as it involved the muscles of the fingers, hands, as well as the shoulder, neck, and back while building hand-eye coordination. Move it to the floor for the added bonus of working on gross motor skills, balance, and spatial awareness.

Set up can be as easy as paint + paper. But there are heaps of ideas of how to present this differently each time too.

Complete while on the high chair. This contains the mess and is the perfect solution to allow you to prepare dinner and keep your child interested and learning.
Use different paints. Consider greek yogurt with food colouring for children who are still mouthing, or cornflour paint (check out Imagination Tree’s recipe here). Or add some glitter or fine sand to the mix to alter the texture.
Paint in a zip lock bag. Get those large zip lock bags, add some paper inside with a few squirts of paint, zip it back up (I add tape too as an extra precaution) then tape it to the surface for your child to work on. This is mess free while still providing the sensory input and can be great if you aren’t keen on a multicoloured child that day.
Take it to the shower! Test this first, but we love adding paints to the shower/bath and letting them go wild. It wipes off and half the fun is cleaning off all the paint from the walls.

3. Hanging Washing

This is simple to make with a few materials from around your home. Just put a few pegs on a box or container you have in your recycling, or expand and let your child help hang out the washing … maybe not the woolen jumpers but starting with their own socks is a good place to begin. This encourages the development of the pincer grip where children control objects with their thumb and forefinger. As your child pulls the peg off the contain or washing line, they also have to learn about the force needed to complete the task, further building the understanding of their body and how to control it.

This activity can be used for a range of ages;

Babies enjoy pulling the pegs off cardboard of a small line and then putting them into containers. We use the clothes airer for this or have placed pegs on used boxes before too!
Toddlers can start to open and close the pegs to attempt to peg them back onto the container or line. Bonus challenge if they can peg an item to the line as well.
Preschoolers can peg the pegs or clothes into patterns and help hang out larger items with you.

4. Playdough or Clay

For this, you don’t need fancy equipment or tools for it to be valuable. You also don’t need an elaborate setup for it to engage your child. OT Mom explains that playdough is amazing for sensory-seeking children who can squish, squash, pound, and mold the playdough that provides them with a range of proprioceptive and tactile feedback.

Each activity your child does with the playdough or clay strengthens their little fingers and hands but it offers even more than that. Playdough allows for creativity, imagination and the less support or activity direction the more that this will develop.

So what are some go-to prompts for your child:

Can you roll it? Make balls, sausages or dig out the old rolling pin from the junk draw
Can you cut it? Plastic knives, cookie cutters, or playdough cutters
Can you grasp and squish it? Make balls, watch it squish through your fingers
Can you pinch it and pull it? Pinch it with different fingers, pull it in different directions

5. Hammering

Okay, this one is daunting and you can use a range of tools to explore without running for that hammer and nail; consider a hammer and chisel set or wooden nails (golf tees work well too). This really focuses on not only fine motor skills but persistence and hand-eye-coordination as it is a complex skill.

Ways to adapt this

Golf tees pushed into a cardboard box
Use the hammer and chisel with clay or playdough
Smash egg shells with a rubber mallet or wooden hammer
Hammer matchsticks into foam or cardboard

6. Threading

It is easy to see threading as an end product of bracelet making with fine beads, but that isn’t the only way children can thread and they can not just start here either.

Our first threading activity was using kabab sticks and our Peg Play Designs bobbins and some pasta. We started by placing some playdough on a tray or table, flatten it out to create a base. Then used kabab sticks that I broke the end off or you could use some spaghetti and place this standing up into the playdough. This simplifies the activity and removes the complexity of the task, allowing for success that breeds confidence with the task.

⁣For younger children, use rings instead of pasta to reduce the difficulty or use chopsticks as these are sturdier for little hands.

Whereas, for older children:

use smaller beads to increase the fine motor difficulty ⁣
create patterns in the beads or pictures of patterns to copy⁣
use string instead of pipe cleaners to increase the difficulty ⁣⁣
use smaller items including beads⁣⁣
add pattern cards to match patterns building mathematics skills⁣⁣
provide a range of materials and make it an art activity ⁣⁣

Don’t have threading items? Try the following; hole punch paper or laminated cards⁣⁣, toilet paper rolls cut up, thread keys onto string. Don’t have string? use an old scarf. This is an adaptable task that can be altered to suit what you have at home rather than needing set equipment.

7. Mixing Ingredients

Cooking with your toddler not high on your fun list? No stress this can be simplified to be focused on more nature play and take that mess outside. All you need for this is to provide some bowls, spoons, and something to mix (leaves, mud, water). Then let your child go nuts.

The wider variety of containers you provide the wider the range of fine motor skills they can practice, think of the different muscles used to pour out of a teapot compared to a large bowl. Consider too mixing with a large spoon vs a small spoon, and the wrist development for each. The wider variety items provided the more

7 Fine Motor Activities to Develop Prewriting Skills