Information for

Parents:
Fine Motor Skills

TM
An OT Mom Free Printable
by Tracey le Roux
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Your Child’s Fine Motor Skills

In order for fine motor skills to develop, there are four Essential Bases that
need to be in place.

Think of your child’s fine motor development as a 4-legged stool.

Each leg of the stool represents one of the bases for fine motor skills.
When one of those legs is missing, or misshapen, the stool will wobble and
topple over. Each of the legs has to be in place in order for the stool to be
stable.

If your child struggles to take part in fine motor activities, it may be because one
of the "Bases" is less “stable” or less developed than the others.

This handout outlines the Four Essential Bases for Fine Motor Development and will point you in the right
direction for activities to help your child get a good foundation for fine motor development.

Base 1: Postural Stability

When the bigger muscles of the shoulder girdle and trunk are strong and
stable, the smaller muscles of the arms and hands can move freely in a
controlled way.

Therapists refer to this as "postural control and stability".

When a child lacks stability in the shoulder girdle and trunk, he/she may hold the
pencil really tightly to try and get more control over it, or may press really hard
on the paper. You may also see tension at the shoulders during fine motor
tasks.

Trying to use a pencil or scissors without adequate stability of the large shoulder girdle and trunk muscles is like
trying to paint a portrait while standing on a wobbly stepladder. It takes huge amounts of effort, is extremely
tiring and the results are usually lousy.

Activities such as climbing (trees, jungle gyms, climbing walls), monkey bars, crab walk, tummy crunches can help
to strengthen the shoulder girdle and the core trunk muscles for this essential base.

Find photos and detailed instructions for fun shoulder and core exercises at

https://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/shoulder-exercises-for-kids.html or

https://www.ot-mom-learningactivities.com/core-exercises-for-kids.html

Base 2: Tactile Perception

If you are not getting good tactile (touch) feedback from your fingers, it is hard
to be accurate with them!

You know how strange dishes feel when you are wearing rubber gloves to wash
them? It is hard to tell which piece of cutlery you are washing if you can’t see it.
You would not know if you were washing your wedding silver or your everyday
fork until you looked at it.

Copyright © 2019 & 2021 (revised) Tracey le Roux OT Mom E-Books TM And OT Mom Printables TM
www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com All Rights Reserved
You may print and share this printable offline to help others. But please do not link directly to the PDF from your own blog. Use this link:
https://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/ot-mom-activity-updates.html
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When a child has poor touch perception, the pencil and the scissors may feel as though they are being held with
rubber gloves on!

There is probably not anything wrong with the nerves in the hands, but the brain is not processing the information
from the hands properly, and so fine motor development is not optimal.

Kids with poor tactile perception can sometimes be really clumsy with their hands, always dropping small items
and letting things slip out of their grasp.

Sometimes they hold items with too much force, so they can "feel" it properly.

Does this sound like your child? Try hiding some objects or shapes in a bag or in sand and asking your child to
identify them without looking.

Or visit https://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/tactile-perception-activities.html for more ideas and photos to

help you!

Base 3: Hand Function

Hand function is an Essential Base for fine motor development, because the
hand and finger muscles need to work well together in order to control pencils
and other small objects and tools.

The wrist and forearm muscles are also important, as the position of the wrist
and forearm will get the hand into the best position to control pencils, scissors
and other fine motor tools.

Giving your child lots of opportunities to get the hands and fingers working together will improve hand strength
and dexterity.

Cutting with scissors is a really good way to help a child to develop good hand function, so be sure to include lots
of scissor cutting in your child's routine! Try these pages below:

https://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/scissor-cutting.html

https://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/hand-exercises-for-kids.html

Base 4: Bilateral Coordination

It may seem like a strange base for fine motor development, but if your hands
don’t work well together, your ability to do many fine motor tasks may be
affected.

Eating with a knife and fork... holding a piece of paper while cutting... tying
shoelaces... playing with construction toys, nuts and bolts... all of those fine
motor activities need both hands to work together in a coordinated way.

Kids who have poor bilateral coordination skills may end up avoiding those fine
motor activities and thus adversely affect their skill development.

Rolling and kneading playdough is a great bilateral coordination activity.

For more ideas, look at https://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/bilateral-coordination.html

Copyright © 2019 & 2021 (revised) Tracey le Roux OT Mom E-Books TM And OT Mom Printables TM
www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com All Rights Reserved
You may print and share this printable offline to help others. But please do not link directly to the PDF from your own blog. Use this link:
https://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/ot-mom-activity-updates.html
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Help Your Child Master Scissor Cutting

Is your child struggling to cut neatly with scissors?

Do you want to teach your preschooler how to cut with scissors but don't know where to start?
My 33 page scissor skills e-book will help answer your questions, and will give you
step by step photographed activities to help your child master scissor skills.
https://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/scissor-skills.html

Support Your Child's Fine Motor Skills Development

Do you want practical activities to develop your child's fine motor skills?
Are you tired of lists of suggestions that don't tell you HOW to do the activities?
My Fine Motor Activities download will give you lots of helpful information and more than 24 pages of
photographed activities to support your child's fine motor skills development.
https://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/fine-motor-skills-development.html
Copyright © 2019 & 2021 (revised) Tracey le Roux OT Mom E-Books TM And OT Mom Printables TM
www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com All Rights Reserved
You may print and share this printable offline to help others. But please do not link directly to the PDF from your own blog. Use this link:
https://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/ot-mom-activity-updates.html
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Disclaimer
The author and publisher of this e-book/printable has prepared this e-book/printable and the accompanying resources to the best of her
abilities and with her best intentions. The information contained in this e-book/printable is strictly for educational purposes. Therefore, if you
wish to apply ideas contained in this e-book, you are taking full responsibility for your actions.

Childhood disorders, learning disorders and developmental delays cannot be diagnosed or treated through this e-book/printable! Please
contact your local Occupational Therapist if there are significant gaps in your child’s progress. If your child is currently attending Occupational
Therapy, these activities can be used to supplement what he/she is doing there, but always check with your child’s Occupational Therapist
first.

As with all activities involving children, please take great care to ensure all sharp objects are moved out of reach, and that parental supervision
is available at all times. The environment should be free of hazards. Some activities suggested on this website/e-book/printable make use of
small objects that may cause a choking hazard for young children. Keep small objects out of reach of young children!

All of the activities require physical activity or exercise. Please only demonstrate these activities and exercises if you are medically fit to do so.
Your child should only carry out these activities and exercises if he/she is medically fit to do so. If in doubt, please consult your doctor. If any
activity or exercise causes any kind of pain and discomfort to you or your child, stop at once and consult your doctor.

Every effort has been made to give accurate information and suggestions. Photographs have not been distorted or altered beyond routine
editing for size and colour. However, results are entirely dependent on the persons demonstrating and taking part in the exercises, activities
and games. The level of success attained depends on the time devoted to taking part in the exercises, activities and games, and the resources
and skills of the persons taking part. Since these factors vary between individuals, OT-Mom-learning-activities.com cannot guarantee success
of individuals, nor is OT-Mom-learning-activities.com responsible for any actions of any persons.

The information provided in this e-book/printable is for general information purposes only and does not constitute professional advice on any
subject matter. OT-Mom-learning-activities.com does not accept any responsibility for any loss which may arise from reliance on information
contained on the website or in this e-book/printable. The author and publisher of this e-book and OT-Mom-learning-activities.com shall in no
event be held liable to any party for any direct, indirect, incidental or other consequential damages arising directly or indirectly from any use of
this material. This e-book/printable is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, the
implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

Something You Should Know!

Before you start using this free printable, I need to make something very clear – this is not a resource written by an expert or someone with a
doctorate in her field.

I am a very normal occupational therapist, and I started my website purely to help parents and teachers to better understand the issues that
kids may struggle with when they start school, and to equip those parents and teachers with activities to promote normal development in order
to give kids the best possible start in formal schooling.

The information I have put on my website is there to inform and inspire based on my own experience, on my own observations and on
discussions I have had with fellow therapists over the years. While I attempt to keep up with current research and publications, I in no way
consider myself an expert, nor have I had time to conduct or publish formal research myself. I created my e-books and free printables out of a
demand for accessible resources, requests made by visitors to my website.

While I try and include relevant references and resources on my website and in my e-books, I cannot back up every activity suggestion,
photograph and/or observation with scientific data.

When working as an occupational therapist, every therapy session was planned with the needs of that particular child in mind. There was no
one-size-fits-all approach to therapy. Over the years, some activities became my go-to favorites to help address particular issues, and it is
these kinds of activities that I attempt to share with parents and teachers on my website and in my e-books.

While I am encouraged by students and therapists who contact me to let me know that my information is helpful, my website, free printables
and e-books are not designed to be used as reference tools for academic purposes. I am always honored and delighted when someone links
to my website or references it in some way, but please do know that my website is not meant to stand as a formal expert source.

Having said all that, I am delighted that you are here, and I trust that my activities and information will be useful to help a child that you are
involved with.

Blessings,

Tracey

Copyright © 2019 & 2021 (revised) Tracey le Roux OT Mom E-Books TM And OT Mom Printables TM
www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com All Rights Reserved
You may print and share this printable offline to help others. But please do not link directly to the PDF from your own blog. Use this link:
https://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/ot-mom-activity-updates.html