Tips and Tricks: Fine Motor Muscles

Age: 2.5 years and up
Area of Development: Fine motor skills

To build the muscles used for important tasks such as writing and cutting (also known as fine motor skills) encourage your child to do the following exercises.
The bear crawl: Have your child crawl on their hands and feet (no knees).
The crab walk: Have your child sit on their butt, then pick themselves up with their hands and feets and crawl around backwards.
The wheelbarrow: Hold your child's legs and have them walk around on their hands.
All of these exercises build the muscles in the wrists and forearms - and those muscles are important for writing. I find these are a good way to know that I'm giving Quinn chances to build those muscles without actually making him sit down and color (which is near impossible these days).

Did you already know this? Did you find this tip helpful? Do you have a tip you'd like to share? Leave it in the comments or email me at mccathy at comcast dot net.