If you’re the parent of a toddler attending preschool, a primary area of focus pertains to fine motor skills. Now is a good time to meet with your child’s teacher to discuss his or her areas of success as well as areas of concern. Your child is assessed on fine motor skills—there is often even a designated area on the “report cards” for these skills.

I often field questions from other moms: What exactly are fine motor skills? Are they really that important? Is it really imperative that my child be able to write his or her name? How about cutting with scissors—straight lines, curved lines, diagonal lines—is it really that important?

Fine motor skills involve the small muscles in your child’s body, such as all of the muscles in your child’s fingers and hands. These are important in enabling functions like writing, coloring, cutting, grasping small objects, getting dressed, tying shoes, and many others. They require strength and dexterity with the use of small muscles as well as a certain level of hand-eye coordination.

How does that translate into school experiences?

Strengthening your child’s fine motor skills will ease the difficulty of many tasks required in school. In addition to writing and cutting, tasks like working on the computer, reading books, and writing letters and numbers will eventually lead to an increased ability to write mathematical equations and stories.

Won’t my child just naturally gain the necessary strength in their hands as they mature and grow? Are fine motor skills something that can be nurtured and promoted?

There is so much we can do, as parents and teachers, to help strengthen children’s fine motor skills, and guess what? We can have fun in the process! Of course, you can paint, color, bead, cut, do puzzles, play with Playdough and so much more, but I have discovered a few newer activities that are a HUGE hit with the kids.

Swiss Cheese Cubes
At the NAEYC conference in Washington D.C., I picked up these rubber swiss cheese cubes that came with two little mice. The kids manipulate the mice in and out of the stretchy holes of the cheese. They love them, they smile, they giggle, and they ask for more time with them! They come to class asking if the mice are out…do you think they realize that they are strengthening their fine motor skills?

Bendaroos
The second one I discovered for “B” week are Bendaroos—the excitement the Bendaroos generate is thrilling. This time, do you think the children realized they were strengthening their fine motor skills AND reinforcing letter recognition and letter formation?

Have fun as you explore fine motor skill development with your child!