Developing Fine Motor Skills



Fine motor skills can be defined as small muscle movements: those that occur in the finger, in coordination with the eyes. Teaching fine motor skills is similar to teaching other skills because the instructor must always try to be patient and understanding. Fine motor skills won't develop over-night, but with time and practice. Here are some suggestions for developing fine motor skills, and some activities to use to practice them:

A. Cutting
Use a thick black line to guide cutting the following:
  1. A fringe from a piece of paper
  2. Cut off corners of a piece of paper
  3. Cut along curved lines
  4. Cut lines with a variety of angles
  5. Cut figures with curves and angles
  6. Cut clay with blunt scissors


B. Placing and Pasting
  1. Place a variety of forms (eg. blocks, felt, paper, string, yarn, cereal, cotton) on outlines
  2. Match shapes, color, or pictures to a page and paste them within the outlines


C. Tracing and Coloring
  1. Use a thick black line if needed
  2. Trace and then color shapes, increasing the size and complexity gradually


D. Self-Care Skills (not listed in order of difficulty)
  1. Buttoning
  2. Lacing
  3. Tying
  4. Fastening Snaps
  5. Zipping
  6. Carrying
  7. Using a screwdriver
  8. Locking and unlocking a door
  9. Winding a clock
  10. Opening and closing jars
  11. Vacuuming a rug
  12. Rolling out dough or other simple cooking activities
  13. Washing plastic dishes
  14. Sweeping the floor
  15. Dressing
  16. Bathing


E. Finger Tracing
  1. Many times when a child is unable to do a worksheet, it helps to trace the pattern with his finger before he tries it with a pencil.
  2. Have the child trace a pattern in sand, cornmeal, finger paint, etc. The textures give the child kinesthetic feedback.


F. Pre-Writing
  1. Dot-to-dot drawings of pictures, objects, shapes, numbers, letters, etc.
  2. Typing exercises
  3. Tile and mosaic work
  4. Folding activities
  5. Fine coloring
  6. Have the child do repetitious strokes (with an increasingly smaller writing tool) similar to those found in manuscript or cursive letters. Emphasize accuracy, spacing and flow or rhythm. Sometimes doing it to music helps.


G. Writing
  1. Have the child write in the air and in front of his eyes (arm outstretched) with his finger.
  2. To increase his tactile awareness, have him trace over letters on textured surfaces. Have him manipulate 3-dimensional letters when blindfolded.
  3. When a writing tool is introduced, letters which involve similar strokes should be taught first (moving simple to complex). Next, combinations of letters in short words, sentences and finally spontaneous writing. (Remember to use words which are within the child's reading vocabulary).


Things to remember:

Upright working surfaces promote fine motor skills. Examples of these are: vertical chalkboards; easels for painting; flannel boards; lite bright; magnet boards (or fridge); windows and mirrors; white boards, etc. Kids can also make sticker pictures; do rubber ink-stamping; use reuseable vinyl stickers to make pictures; complete puzzles with thick knobs; use magna-doodle and etch-a-sketch as well. The benefits for these include: having the child's wrist positioned to develop good thumb movements; they help develop good fine motor muscles; the child is using the arm and shoulder muscles.

In general, it is more fun to learn while you play. Keep that in mind when teaching fine motor skills. Try to encorporate activities like dress-up to teach zipping and buttons; card creations to practice writing or tracing skills; cutting and pasting to make a creation other than just a plain piece of paper, etc. Be creative and have fun!