Fine Motor Skills

Summer Crafts to Help Promote the Development of Fine Motor Skills

Arts and crafts are tailor-made for bored kids during the long days of summer. Not only do they get children out of mom’s hair for awhile, they also help them develop fine motor skills.

Practicing the skills with these five crafts will help your child with everyday practical chores from buttoning his shirt to learning to print letters and how to make cursive lettering.

1. Play with clay

Have your child work with clay, available from craft stores, to make a sculpture. The choice is limitless, from a bowl to keep her treasures in to a sculpture of her kitty. The effort to mold and sculpt the dense clay develops the muscles in fingers and hands.

2. Any piece of artwork using paper

This lets your child use a choice of instruments, from crayons of all sizes, colored pencils, big markers, paintbrushes, and chalk. The different sizes use assorted muscles in the hands and fingers and require coordination for proper manipulation.

3. Make a pillow

Sew an easy pillow, apron, ornament for the holidays, actually anything that requires a thread and needle. This requires concentration and, again, the use of many muscles in the fingers and hands. You can find easy designs online.

4. Scribbling

This most basic form of artwork is perfect for toddlers and youngsters who find the first three suggestions too difficult. Give them a range of writing implements so they can pick and choose.

5. Finger painting

This never goes out of style and appeals to pre-kindergarten age and older. Moving the gooey liquid paints around on paper requires use of muscles throughout their hands and fingers.

With a few supplies and a big table, your children can entertain themselves and at the same time, practice fine motor skills that help them progress physically and mentally.

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