Quick fine motor strengthening tennis ball tutorial that works on building strength in the hands and fingers. Includes 25 at home exercises.
Boost your grip power with equipment-free exercises! Learn effective techniques to improve grip strength, enhance dexterity, and increase hand functionality
This simple activity is one that is designed to promote motoric hand separation. This is a skill that is necessary for so many tasks! From holding a pencil to cutting with scissors, to zippering a zipper, motoric separation of the two sides of the hand is an essential skill when it comes to fine motor ... Read more
These 5 types of activities help promote the development of a functional pencil grasp. You'll be surprised that a pencil is not even needed!
The pincer grasp isn't just for babies. Toddlers need to continue strengthening this coordination and dexterity for future tasks.
Hand strengthening is an important part of fine motor skills. This resource covers everything you need to know about hand strength.
A review of pencil grasp development in children is critical as an Occupational Therapist to understand where the child is in pencil grip development and how to best help them to be successful in writing and eventually holding the pencil in the best way they can. Image retrieved from here Fisted grasp: Reaching/holding items with entire fist. Pinky will be closest to the paper. Pronated grasp: All fingers holding the writing tool, movement comes mostly from elbow at this stage. 4 Finger grasp: Arc begins to form between thumb and index finger. Static Tripod Grasp: Children should be able to copy a diagonal line, a square, a diagonal cross, a circle, a triangle. *Quadrapod grip can happen at this stage with the fourth finger involved. Dynamic Tripod Grasp: Consistent 3 fingers on the writing utensil. "When OTs consider writing as an important early literacy and communication skill in addition to it being a complex fine motor task, their approaches to supporting writing are greatly expanded" (Gerde, 2014). According to Bear, children go through stages of on their way to conventional writing such as scribbling, drawing, scribble writing, letter-like formations (shapes that resemble letters such as /, +, and a triangle). and letters. Ideas/activities to develop and strengthen thumb/finger muscles from Royal Children's Hospital: Note: Have child use thumb and index finger (as well as middle finger if required). Finger games: thumb war, itsy bitsy spider Buttoning clothes Tweezers to pick up small beads or toys--place them into a bowl/container Remove coins one at a time from a bowl Playdough (roll, squeeze, push, poke) Tear up collared paper for a collage Threading beads Manipulating legs Squeezing clothes pins on/off a rim of a basket/bowl Sticker play Spray bottle play with water Citations Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2008). Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. Gerde, H. K., Foster, T. D., & Skibbe, L. E. (2014). Beyond the pencil: expanding the occupational therapists' role in helping young children to develop writing skills. Open Journal of Occuaptional Therapy, 2(1).
Hand strength is essential in many aspects of life, and many kids come to preschool lacking hand strength. Many teachers and parents struggle to motivate kids to work on developing their hand
Painting this snowflake with Q-Tips is a great way to work on developing mature grasp patterns, improve finger/hand strength and promote visual motor skills. ...
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Handwriting legibility and hand strength are closely tied. You might say they go hand-in-hand. (I had to go there!) This easy fine motor tong activity is designed to build some of the muscles needed for managing a pencil. The intrinsic muscles are the muscles in the hand that define the arches of the hands, bend the ... Read more
Strength in the hand muscles is a fine motor skill that is necessary for so many tasks. Strength in the intrinsic muscles of the hands allow for a curved palm which is used for cupping the palm in order to hold items such as coins or beads. The intrinsic muscles are needed for pencil grasp ... Read more
Kids love these games to improve pencil grasp and fine motor skills. They don't realize they are building motor skills when they play games!
Hand strength is essential in many aspects of life, and many kids come to preschool lacking hand strength. Many teachers and parents struggle to motivate kids to work on developing their hand
SSE resources target different academic concepts and also fine motor and life skills! As an OT, I love checking out the SSE resource library!
This home programme was designed for children in the foundation phase to help them develop their hand skills. Hand skills are necessary to be able to manipulate clothing, writing utencils, scissors, and other tools. As an occupational therapist I specifically look at the underlying skills that are necessary for the normal development of the different hand skills. Activities are devided into different hand skills groups. These skills include: Tactile discrimination, Hand strength, Wrist extension, Thumb opposition, Bilateral hand use, Pincer grasp, and In-hand manipulation. All activities are described in detail and photos are included where necessary.
Hand strength is essential in many aspects of life, and many kids come to preschool lacking hand strength. Many teachers and parents struggle to motivate kids to work on developing their hand
This article discusses the pincer grasp, its importance, and how occupational therapy can help. Plus 30 pincer grasp exercises.
These hand strength red flags are useful for identifying kids who might need some extra work on hand strengthening activities!
The theraputty programme is for children who have fine motor difficulties and have poor postural motor control.
This table top activity is a fine moor skill activity to develop pincer grasp. We loved using this activity to target pincer grasp, hand strength, eye- hand coordination, wrist extension, and more. Tabletop activity Tabletop activities refer to any kind of activity or game that can be played on a flat surface such as a ... Read more
These theraputty exercises are fun and engaging ways to build pinch and grip strength in the hands using therapy putty.
Pencil control exercises like the ones in this blog are powerful strategies to improve handwriting and letter formation.
A thumb wrap grasp can look awkward and lead to slow handwriting. But is it functional? Here's what you need to know.
SSE resources target different academic concepts and also fine motor and life skills! As an OT, I love checking out the SSE resource library!
Discover when a Pincer Grasp develops, the difference between a crude and neat pincer grasp and get 9 Activities that work on it without food!
Practice fine motor skills in this quick prep duck race. It's a great sensory play activity for toddlers and preschoolers.
Seven simple and actionable steps for children to develop a functional grasp pattern that don't involve a pencil grip!
Getting a child to use the correct pencil grasp is something that many educators and pediatricians seem to encourage parents to worry about. Reason being is that a correct pencil grip allows children to keep the wrist steady while making the small movements needed for writing and other life skills. Follow these simple tips for...
Writing with a small pencil is a fine motor strengthening power tool. When kids use a small pencil to write (or small crayons to color), they are building the strength in their hands, allowing for increased endurance in writing and coloring tasks. The positioning of the hand on the pencil promotes a tripod grasp and ... Read more
Hand strength is essential in many aspects of life, and many kids come to preschool lacking hand strength. Many teachers and parents struggle to motivate kids to work on developing their hand
Looking for some ways to increase fine motor skills? Try these fine motor activities for playdough. Develop pincer grasp and hand strength.
Pincer grasp helps prepare children for developing fine motor skills. Help a child develop a pincer grasp with these fun and easy activities.
This pipe cleaner activity is a quick and easy hand strengthening activity that can be beneficial for developing the muscles of the hands needed for small motor tasks like manipulating objects, clothing fasteners, and pencil grasp. Activities like this one can help with fine motor skills that are necessary for so many tasks. Use this fine motor ... Read more
These fine motor play ideas are FUN pencil grasp activities that build fine motor skills, perfect for addressing pencil grip in occupational therapy.
A functional pencil grasp is essential for handwriting legibilty, speed, and efficiency. So what makes up a functionall pencil grasp?
Hole punch activities provide a fun and engaging way to build hand strength and fine motor skills. Find lots of printable hole punch activities for your kids in preschool, kindergarten, and
