Movements that require the use of small hand muscles are called fine motor skills. Activities such as pencil skills, using scissors, playing games with blocks and puzzles, dressing the baby, tying shoelaces, using forks and spoons, opening zipper-buttons, brushing teeth, combing hair, can be counted as examples of fine motor skills.
The extent to which children’s small hand muscles develop affects the quality of the products they produce, as well as their performance in the activities they do. In addition to academic skills, the way to meet daily basic needs is to acquire fine motor skills, and children who have not gained this skill may have difficulty in gaining self-esteem.
Studies that positively affect the development of small hand muscles and fine motor skills in children from a young age, in order to gain life skills, appear as studies that parents and preschool teachers include in their practices.
We have compiled the following activities for you as examples of activities that will develop small hand muscles that children will use throughout their lives.
Play Dough
Play dough provides an effective fine motor activity that develops small hand muscles by allowing children to grasp, squeeze and shape. Children who learn to strain their muscles with purposeful exercises after they start to distinguish shapes and animals also enjoy creating a product in this way. When buying play dough, it is useful to make sure that there are no substances that will endanger the health of children or to make the dough at home.
Textured Play Materials Like Kinetic Sand
Kinetic sand is one of the most loved and popular toys among children’s sensory play materials. It can be bought ready-made or made at home with various materials. A kinetic sand game, which you can prepare with some shaving foam and some starch, not only helps your child have a good time, but also strengthens their tiny muscles!
Toys that Encourage Holding
The toy, which is called a rattle for babies from just a few months old, and which they keep their eyes on with the sound it makes when shaken thanks to the movement of the small parts inside, may be the first muscle builders they grasp tightly. Objects that they can grasp until they are squeezed and twisted are also very effective in strengthening the muscles.
Painting and Printing Studies
Painting with paints that the child can use according to his age not only strengthens his muscles by holding a pencil, but also develops his artistic taste with the product he creates. The little ones, who also improve their decision-making skills while choosing colors, also love finger painting and printing works with various shapes and objects.
Water Games
Even alone, water is a play material where children can use and develop their hands and muscles. Sponge balls thrown into the water, rubber ducks etc. Squeezing out the water inside toys that absorb water, such as toys that absorb water, can also be a simple game that is beneficial for their muscles.
Soil
Planting flowers with children, creating various objects by shaping the soil, children who love kneading can exercise their muscles by using their hands a lot. Children who are both having fun and developing fine motors can relax by touching the ground and discharging their energy. The hand-eye coordination of the little ones who are trying to carry a sapling, a flower from the pot to the ground, also develops.
Filter Games
As a very simple two-ingredient yet effective game, the pasta strainer is turned upside down and long sticks of pasta are passed through the holes. The little hands trying not to break the pasta also improve their focusing skills while trying to pass it through the hole.
Rings Threaded on Rolling Pin Stick
The cardboard rolls that emerge when the toilet paper is finished is a unique activity raw material for mothers and preschool teachers. In this game, the rolls, which are also in the leading role, are cut in two cm thickness and put on the rolling pin stick. In this very entertaining game, counting each ring is also effective in recognizing the numbers.
Collecting Balls on the Tape
Packing tapes are attached to the open door in a mixed order from right to left, plastic balls are affixed to the adhesive surface of the tapes, as light as the tape can carry, and tiny hands are asked to take these balls out. Various toys can be used instead of plastic balls in this game, in which he will be very happy when he removes each ball from the tape.
Scissor Events
Children are generally attracted to scissors, but it takes time to learn how to cut them however they want. Cutting with scissors, which depends on the development of small muscles and is one of the activities that will develop these muscles in the best way, is more effective if it is done on limited shapes. For this, first of all, the papers that you have drawn in large shapes such as straight, wavy, zigzag and from top to bottom are attached with tape from the top to a place where the child can reach, and they are asked to try to cut them by following these lines with a pair of scissors suitable for their hand. As you reach the goal, the shapes can be made more difficult and detailed shapes can be drawn.