What are fine motor skills and why are they so important? Fine motor skills use small muscles to do many important tasks. These are the skills needed for daily living. Examples are:
1) Dressing: buttoning, snapping, zipping, tying laces
2) Eating: picking things up (pincer grasp), using spoons and grasping finger foods
3) Playing and Creating: manipulating small objects such as toys, stringing beads, using scissors, drawing with crayons, painting, writing, and pushing buttons and keys (to make music or play)
Most children acquire these skills as they develop normally. In the same way that teaching small children communication skills can help them maneuver in life with more joy and less frustration; teaching and encouraging fine motor skills can help a child build self-sufficiency and self-confidence. If you want to feel the frustration of a child that has not developed fine motor skills, witness the shame and frustration that an older child feels when they are the only one in fourth grade that cannot tie their shoe laces! If children at Robin’s Nest have fine motor delays I have the training and interest to encourage skills in a fun and confidence-building way! I also have the knowledge to recognize children that need further evaluation. The earlier we recognize the child that may need extra help learning these activities of daily living the better!
I am so lucky to spend time with young people during this amazing part of their lives. I have a daily curriculum that I enjoy with the kids at Robin’s Nest DayCare. We work on small and gross (large) motor skills every day. Gross motor skills are the skills used for sports and moving around. These are also very important. Our next blog will be about Gross Motor Skills. Here is a small slide show of my own children displaying fine motor skills.
This little peg game is a fun way to learn numbers but what it is really doing is helping with fine motor skills!
All these little buttons….Fine Motor Skills!
Dressing up…practicing for real life and having a blast!
Picking up little toys, lining them up, sorting by color..
Making Mother’s Day presents using our small muscle skills!
Related articles
- One simple trick for improving kids’ self-dressing skills (mamaot.wordpress.com)
- How You Learn (socyberty.com)
- 4 Essential Life Skills That I Have Yet To Master (aiminglow.com)
Robin's Nest DayCare 
It is always an honor to have my blog shared. I have taken time to look around your site and love the projects and program you provide. Thanks for sharing so much useful information on here!
I am looking forward to your gross motor skills post. I had never realized these were such different, separate muscles groups used until I was forced to learn everything all over again. Who would have thought holding a pencil could be easier than throwing a ball towards a target??
Parents, have patience with your little ones. It is so much harder to gain control of these specific skills we take for granted as we age. Once again, thank you for sharing my story. It means a great deal to me.
Tara