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.

Tips and Tricks: Pencil Grasp

Age: 2 years and up
Area of Development: Fine motor skills

To encourage your child to hold their writing utensils properly (with their thumb and one or two fingers as opposed to wrapping all of their fingers around it also known as fisting) break their crayons into small pieces. The occupational therapist at our school swears by this and I've been using it with some of the kids in my class who still struggle with this. I only offer them broken crayons (sounds mean, I know) or small pencils (think mini golf course size). With a small writing utensil there is little room for your child to fist it. Another thing you can try is to have them write on an elevated surface such as an easel or just tape the paper to the wall (or, you know, let them color on the walls).

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.

Tips and Tricks: Going Green

Age: 18 months - 5 years
Area of Development: self expression/fine motor skills

This trick of the trade is coming from the art teacher at my work. After you have your child paint (either finger paint or with brushes) save the paper that they painted on. Later, once it has dried the child can use that same paper to draw scribbles or shapes on top of the colors. Save that paper. Later the child can cut out the shapes or just cut apart the paper. Three uses for one piece of paper: paint, draw, cut. (An occupational therapist might also suggest that you have your child crumble the cut paper to help throw it away.)
Most kids paint for the enjoyment of painting and what they create is just a big piece of paper covered with paint. They enjoyed the process of it all much more than the product that they created. Once your child actually starts painting pictures I do not suggest that you have them draw on top of them (unless they want to use a different media to add to the picture) and I do not suggest that you tell them to cut up their pictures or crumble them up and throw them away. This tip is for those people who have kids that will paint and paint and paint until the entire paper is covered and then ask for more paper to paint some more.

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.