Does your child struggle with getting dressed, writing, drawing, or feeding themselves? These fine motor skills are essential for daily life, and delays in achieving these skills can impact your child’s overall development and wellbeing. Pediatric occupational therapy can help your child gain these vital fine motor skills for success at home, in school, and beyond. Keep reading to learn more about fine motor skills and how your child can achieve them with the help of an occupational therapist.
What Are Fine Motor Skills?
Fine motor skills refer to the skills needed to perform precise movements with the hands and feet. These skills involve the strength and coordination of small muscles for activities like writing, buttoning clothes, using utensils, and catching items. Developing strong fine motor skills not only supports academic success but also enhances a child’s independence and self-confidence in daily life. This is because fine motor skills are vital for activities like:
- Taking care of personal hygiene
- Self-feeding
- Writing and drawing
- Playing with toys
Signs of Fine Motor Skill Delays in Children
The most common signs of fine motor skill delays in children include:
- Difficulty holding and using a pencil, marker, or crayon
- Struggles with buttoning or zipping clothes
- Struggles with tying shoelaces
- Poor hand-eye coordination in activities like catching or throwing
- Challenges with using utensils for eating
- Trouble using scissors to cut paper
- Difficulty brushing teeth
- Frequently dropping items
- Appears clumsy or accident-prone
- Trouble using both hands together
How Occupational Therapy Helps Children with Fine Motor Skill Delays
Occupational therapy helps children build the fine motor skills they need for success in daily life. We do this through play-based activities and exercises designed to improve muscle strength, coordination, and dexterity. Some common examples of occupational therapy treatment activities include:
- Precision exercises to improve finger strength and control
- Fine motor games like puzzles to enhance hand-eye coordination
- Practicing drawing and handwriting
- Stringing beads and other small objects
- Using scissors to cut paper along a line
- Manipulating Play-Doh or other soft materials
- Practicing washing hands, brushing teeth, etc.
- And much more
The Importance of Early Intervention for Fine Motor Skill Delays
Many parents think that their child will “figure it out” and be able to handle fine motor activities more easily as they get older. While that may be true for some children, it’s better to address fine motor skill delays as early as possible with a qualified occupational therapist. This is because your child needs these basic skills to grow and learn more complicated skills as they get older.
For example, if your toddler has trouble grasping and using crayons by the age they should have that skill, it may not seem like a big deal. They are a toddler, after all. But without learning the basic fine motor skills they need to be able to grasp that crayon and use it to draw something on paper, how will your child be able to write when they get to school age? Using a pencil requires more precise movements that will be difficult for your child to master if they struggle with the first step—grasping the crayon.
Early intervention ensures that your child gains the basic skills as soon as possible so that they have less trouble with the more complex skills as they get older. That’s why it’s so vital for your child’s overall success in school and beyond.
Schedule an Evaluation
If your child is struggling with their fine motor skills, Little Hands at Play can help. Call us at (479) 226-3409 to schedule an evaluation with our occupational therapists today.
