During their toddler years, children begin to learn, develop, and grow quickly. As toddlers become more enthusiastic about exploring the world independently, encouraging them to build their fine motor skills at this age is very beneficial for coordination, physical development, and posture.
At Devon Nurseries, we encourage the development of children’s fine motor skills through various activities, such as drawing, mark making, playing musical instruments, play dough, threading, and puzzles.
What Are Fine Motor Skills?
Once children develop gross motor skills, like the ability to control muscles in the body for big movements like crawling, jumping, and walking, they start to develop their fine motor skills. But what are they?
Fine motor skills are those more delicate, precise movements. Fine motor skills are the ability to move and coordinate the smaller muscles in the body, such as hands, wrists, toes, and eyes. Although these abilities become natural to us, toddlers are at the age when they start to develop these fine motor skills for the first time.
Activities to Build Your Toddler’s Fine Motor Skills
Here are 6 activities to help toddlers and young children develop their fine motor skills.
1. Arts and Crafts
Activities like painting, drawing, and scribbling are wonderful ways to encourage your child to develop their fine motor skills. Children love getting creative, so this should be a walk in the park!
Arts and crafts involve delicate movements that will help toddlers improve their finger and hand dexterity and control. Making paper planes, threading beads, and cutting paper (with safety scissors and under supervision) are just some ideas you can get involved with.
2. Building Blocks and Lego
Encouraging toddlers to play with building blocks helps improve their eye and hand coordination. Building blocks also help improve a child’s visual and spatial awareness as they play with different shapes and sizes. Toddlers also develop their physical coordination with building blocks as they reach for and stack blocks on top of each other.
If your child still puts toys in their mouth or is below the age of 3, we suggest avoiding smaller building blocks like Lego, as they pose a health and safety risk.
3. Playdough
Playdough is a brilliant way to build your toddler’s fine motor skills. It’s a really engaging and fun activity for children to participate in and encourages their sensory development and imagination.
Children learn to squeeze, pinch, pull, roll, and flatten through playdough and mould different shapes. This strengthens their hand muscles, which in turn develops their fine motor skills.
4. Baking
Baking is an excellent activity for your toddler for many reasons. Through baking, children not only develop their fine motor skills but also learn about all the different types of ingredients and how they come together. They also develop their sensory skills through touch, taste, smell, and sounds, and it’s a great bonding activity for the entire family.
From pouring liquids, sieving flour, cracking eggs, and mixing ingredients to rolling out cookie dough and cutting cookie shapes, baking involves many different movements. These all require hand dexterity and coordination – improving your toddler’s fine motor skills.
5. Practise Getting Dressed
Another activity to improve your toddler’s fine motor skills is encouraging them to start dressing independently. Of course, they will still need help and struggle to get dressed independently, so being there to help them is important.
Why not help them learn how to pull their socks on? Starting with small and easy tasks can help break getting dressed down into easier and more manageable steps for young children. Once they feel more confident, encourage them to try putting their shoes on, secure the velcro, or even fasten big buttons.
6. Sand Play
When children play in the sand, whether on the beach or in a sand pit, they develop muscle coordination, improve hand-eye coordination, engage in sensory exploration, and build fine motor skills.
Activities like building sandcastles, using a bucket and spade, digging, sifting, and scooping are all great ways for toddlers to enhance their fine motor skills while getting fresh air and learning more about their outdoor environment.
If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of outdoor play, check out our previous blog.
Fine motor skills play a pivotal role in shaping a child’s ability to carry out day-to-day activities like getting dressed, writing, eating, and so much more. They lay the foundation for a child’s development, allowing them to participate in a range of physical activities.
Want to learn more about how we help children develop their fine motor skills at Devon Nurseries? Contact us today, and we’ll be happy to provide more information.