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Your Child's Manual Dexterity - Activities To Improve It
Fine motor skills are defined as the coordination of small muscle movements which usually occur in the fingers and usually in coordination with the eyes. When related to the hands (and fingers) the term dexterity is most commonly used.
Manual dexterity is the ability for the hands and fingers of your little one to make coordinated movements. Strong fine motor skills, such as used with writing, knitting, sewing and other activities that involve the hands and fingers, rely on manual dexterity.
In young children, manual dexterity is developed very normally and 'organically' through routine activities that also require hand-eye coordination. As with many things, some children’s fine motor skills develop faster and are stronger than those of others and some children with weak fine motor skills may struggle when learning to form letters and beginning to write.
Because there are many reasons why fine motor skills and manual dexterity may be affected, paediatric occupational therapists often work with children to improve their manual dexterity.
Thankfully, there are several ways to help your child improve manual dexterity through simple every day, hands-on activities. Exercising a child’s fingers and hands can dramatically improve their manual dexterity so do try some of the following activities:
Threading cereals that have an O-shape – Threading cereal onto yarn is an activity that requires fine motor skills and is repetitively exercising the same muscles, all the while practicing hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity.
Sewing with wool (yarn) and cardboard – This is another activity that can improve manual dexterity and builds on fine motor skills. Children feed the string, wool or yarn through holes which requires concentration and can also satisfy a child creatively.
Coloring pages – Coloring in - more so than ‘random’ drawing, requires children to grip crayons and stay within the lines of the image they are trying to color. This too requires concentration and gives the child an end result to be proud of. For example little girls may enjoy coloring images of Barbie and at sites like Barbie Coloring Pages you’ll find the best Barbie printables , while little boys would perhaps enjoy the Pokemon coloring sheets at Pokemon Coloring Pages.
For particularly young children who cannot yet color or play with small objects, a classic shape sorter toy is a great place to start. For older kids, small, interlocking building blocks such as those by Lego or Duplo are great ways to play while improving and strengthening their manual dexterity.
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