How do you suggest I help my child hone his fine-motor skills?
If you suspect your child has weak fine motor skills it may be beneficial to have him evaluated at an early age for some early intervention work. The younger the child receives the intervention the less it will interfere when the demand and need for fine motor skills is present in his life, such as when writing stories in school.
However, if you feel this is a minor weakness I would suggest doing some fine motor exercises.
- Practice buttoning. Velcro has taken over so much and children are no longer required to learn how to button, tie or zip. But these are valuable skills for them to have in addition to building up their fine motor skills. They can practice this just by dressing each day. Encourage them to do it themselves.
- Play-dough or clay is also something that builds strength.
- Finger painting
- Twisting pipe cleaners
- Pick up sticks
- Good ol’ fashioned coloring or writing. For additional motivation, have many different types of crayons, markers, pens and pencils on hand for different experiences. For example, you may notice your child prefers to write with markers and that may be because the marker glides on the paper differently.