You can support your child’s fine motor skills when you:

Provide opportunities for your child to explore and experiment with a variety of small objects:  play dough, lacing cards, puzzles, blocks, beads, puppets, nesting toys, peg boards, etc.

Provide a variety of materials for drawing, cutting, and handwriting development:  paper, crayons, chalk, paints, markers, glue sticks, scissors, stickers, pencils, tape, etc.Let your child use her fine motor skills in everyday tasks:  open jars, pour water, squeeze toothpaste, spread peanut butter on bread, etc.

Encourage self-help skills:  zipping pants, buttoning sweaters, lacing shoes.

Let your child use assorted tools (spoon, ice cream scoop, tweezers, tongs, etc.) to move different items (cotton balls, dry cereal, pom poms, noodles, blocks, etc.) from one container (bucket, bowl, dishpan, etc.) to another.

Encourage your child to create sculptures by poking items (toothpicks, paper clips, pipe cleaners, small beads, Cheerios, buttons, etc.) into Styrofoam.

Provide lacing materials (yarn, plastic lacing string) for your child to lace Cheerios, beads, hair rollers, pasta, buttons, etc.  If you use yarn, use masking tape to stiffen an end and create a thin point to ease lacing.

Encourage proper scissors position (thumb up) by placing a bit of colored tape on the top of the blade.  Remind your child to cut so that she can see the color.  Use stiff materials for early success--play dough snakes, straws, or thin strips of paper.  Your child can work up to fringing the edge of a piece of paper, snipping corners, following thick straight lines, following thick curved lines, cutting out shapes, etc.