Have you noticed how small children find it very difficult to accomplish tasks such as doing up buttons or picking up grains of rice with their fingers? There are two reasons for this - firstly, the tiny muscles of their fingers haven't developed sufficiently i.e. they are lacking in fine motor development. Secondly, children don't have the hand-eye coordination required to perform the task i.e. their hands and eyes cannot work in tandem because there hasn't been enough practice.
There are many parents who are most eager for their children to start writing the ABCs. Think twice before pushing your child. You might be doing real damage. Before children can hold a pencil to write, the small muscles of their hands must be allowed to develop. There are several enjoyable ways of doing this.
Everyone makes flour dough at home - give some to your child. It's a lot safer than play-doh if ingested, and just as pliable. Add some food colour to make it more attractive. In pulling, stretching and shaping the dough, your child is silently building strength in those little fingers. Additional tools such as rolling pins, cookie cutters etc. could make it a lot more fun.
Activities such as tearing, cutting, pasting are also great to build finger muscle control. Bring out old newspapers and magazines and encourage your child to tear paper into as tiny pieces as possible. Use these torn bits to paste within the large outline of a tree, house or any other object. As children grow older, make the outline smaller and show them how to stay within that outline while pasting. You could also tear and crumple paper to use for the pasting activity.
Go ahead and be creative - pick up fallen leaves, petals, feathers and the like on a "nature walk" and paste these to create a collage. 4-5 year old children can start using child-friendly scissors to cut out simple shapes such as a square or triangle. It could be exciting to cut out pictures from an old magazine and use these to create a masterpiece!
Children love colours so drawing, colouring, painting should bring them great joy. Encourage your child to scribble. However, remember, no ABCs. Let them just pick up a crayon and scribble away on old newspapers. It's common to find children scribbling on walls - get a easel board and provide lots of scribbling material to protect your walls! If you can afford it, get a wood panelling akin to a blackboard at your child's height level in his or her room. Provide supplies - coloured chalk, a duster etc. for a great scribbling experience. Place coins underneath plain paper and show children how to gently rub crayon on these to see impressions emerge.
Be with your child to supervise painting sessions. Spread newspapers on the floor before starting out. Use child friendly water soluble paint. Allow your child to paint freely using paint brushes, ear buds or even old tooth brushes. Do not impose your ideas - let them draw and paint as they like and not how how you want them to. Make hand prints and foot prints. It's going to get messy, but enjoy the fun. Your child is going to love it! Cut vegetables into half and dip them in paint to create vegetable prints. Bitter gourds, onions, okra etc. yield beautiful block designs. Give your child a clean eye dropper to "pick up" paint and experiment with different sized coloured droplets. As he or she squeezes the dropper to suck up and release paint, the finger muscles are exercised.
The tech savvy children of this century are no strangers to mobile phones, and other digital equipment. Pressing keys in mobiles and remotes, clicking the mouse etc. aid fine motor development as well as hand eye coordination.
The tech savvy children of this century are no strangers to mobile phones, and other digital equipment. Pressing keys in mobiles and remotes, clicking the mouse etc. aid fine motor development as well as hand eye coordination.
All these activities will compel children refine their finger movements aiding in fine motor development. Their hand-eye coordination will improve too. Provide every opportunity you can to assist in both. Encourage them to do up and undo buttons and zippers on their clothes. Show them how to tie their shoe laces. Its not necessary that they will be able to do these immediately - remember, don't push...it'll come to them in good time. In the mean time, have fun together!
