12 Fine Motor Activities for Toddlers - The Inspired Treehouse (2024)

FAQs

Which of these activities would develop fine motor skills in a toddler? ›

Play-dough and putty are often used as part of the heavy work component of a sensory diet. They can also help improve a child's fine motor skills. Encourage your child to squeeze, stretch, pinch and roll “snakes” or “worms” with the play clay. You can even have your child try to cut the play-dough with scissors.

Structured Fine Motor Activities

Teachers may organize activities like finger painting, cutting with scissors, playing with playdough, using tweezers to pick up small objects, or lacing beads—all of which help kids refine their finger movements and hand coordination.

Other fun ways to support the development of gross motor skills are dancing, playing on climbing fames, climbing trees, walking up and down hills, helping with chores around the house (sweeping, mopping, wiping counters).

These skills encompass fundamental actions such as crawling, walking, running, jumping, throwing, and catching. As children grow and develop, their gross motor skills become increasingly refined, allowing them to engage in more complex physical tasks like sports and outdoor activities.

Provide interesting experiences which help children practice fine motor skills. Cooking, gardening, sewing, fixing and making things are all good examples of activities that involve using tools and small movements with accuracy and precision.

Precision teachers often build frequencies on the Big 6 + 6, which include reach, touch, point, place, grasp, release, push, pull, shake, squeeze, tap, and twist (Binder, Haughton, & Bateman, 2002; Desjardins 1995).

A child can bend and pick up objects from a standing position. Fine motor skills become more refined. For example, children can pick up small objects, with fingers, that often end up in his/her mouth. Fine motor skills are improving, allowing toddlers to scribble and pour contents from one container into another.

At age 3, children are developing fine motor control: they're more able to move their fingers independently, using them in more complex tasks such as holding writing utensils like an adult, cutting with scissors and making more complex and precise drawings.

Hopscotch

Hopping and jumping require strong gross motor skills, balance, and coordination. Hopscotch is a simple way to practice those skills. (As a bonus, it can help practice number skills, too!) If you don't have a sidewalk to draw on or a playground nearby, you can set up hallway hopscotch using painter's tape.

Examples of hand-eye and foot-eye coordination skills that are also gross motor skills include: Throwing and catching a ball. Kicking a ball. Doing a cartwheel.

What are fine motor skills in Montessori theory? ›

Montessori believed that the ability to perform fine motor tasks with precision and accuracy was instrumental in developing a child's attention, concentration, and problem-solving skills. She also viewed the development of fine motor skills as essential for enhancing a child's creativity and sense of independence.

Fine motor skills involve the use of the smaller muscle of the hands, commonly in activities like using pencils, scissors, construction with lego or duplo, doing up buttons and opening lunch boxes.

About fine and gross motor skills

'Motor skills' describes the ability to control and coordinate movements. This can include fine motor control (e.g. small movements of the fingers and hands) and gross motor control (for example, large and coordinated movements of the trunk, arms, and legs).

For example, fine motor skills are needed for things like self-feeding, dressing and undressing, grooming/bathing, toothbrushing, writing, and even texting. For a child, fine motor skills are important for completing school work such as drawing, coloring, and writing their name.

What are fine motor skills? Generally thought of as the movement and use of hands and upper extremities, fine motor skills include reaching, grasping and manipulating objects with your hands. Fine motor skills also involve vision, specifically visual motor skills, often referred to hand-eye coordination.

Fine motor skills involve the use of the smaller muscle of the hands, commonly in activities like using pencils, scissors, construction with lego or duplo, doing up buttons and opening lunch boxes.

Between the age of 1 and 2 years old your child will be getting better at using those little hands and fingers to stack things and manipulate objects using both hands in a coordinated way. Encourage two-handed activities to help your toddler practice these fine motor skills.

Your child's fine motor skills will develop through every day actions and at playtime with activities that involve grasping, holding, and pressing. They also will perfect the pincer grasp first through feeding and then through play and eventually by dressing themselves.