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How To Hone Your Child’s Motor Skills

Motor skills consist of the body’s ability to control movement. That said, developing motor skills is essential, especially during childhood, since many regular activities require using motor skills. Some examples of these activities are opening a lunchbox, wearing dresses, playing video games, and writing with a pencil. If your child takes the time to learn motor skills, he can do more activities without your help. 

A child’s motor skills start with a raking finger grasp and clasping a rattle. In time, these skills develop into more complicated skills when the child reaches the school-aged period. This period is crucial for physical and cognitive growth. And so, honing motor skills can be helpful during this time.  

That said, there are many activities that your child can do to hone their motor skills. If you want to know them, reading this article will be helpful.

  • Playing Puzzles

A puzzle is a toy that can exercise your child’s brain and motor skills by fitting pieces together. They vary in shape and size, and you can choose the puzzle’s difficulty level. This makes this toy suitable for people of all ages, even adults. You can buy them online, such as by visiting the Ravensburger Puzzle Australia site, or by purchasing them at department stores.   

Many have long considered puzzles to offer plenty of benefits to children as they grow. For one, it helps a child to learn motor skills. As your child grasps the small puzzle pieces, they can make their finger muscles strong. They have to collect the puzzle pieces and turn and hold them slowly so they will fit into the puzzle form. This process enables them to build reasonable control. 

If your child plays puzzles, your child can learn to do plenty of activities that are the same as playing puzzles. For instance, fitting one’s belongings into a bag or box is almost the same as holding pieces to form an entire puzzle.

  • Playing With Slime

Besides puzzles, slime is another toy that can nurture your child’s motor skills. Slime is a sensory toy, meaning it stimulates your child’s senses. This effect on your child can be beneficial in enhancing fine motor skills. For one, it improves the strength and abilities of your child’s hand. Second, it enables the child to exercise hand-eye coordination. 

Your child can do plenty of activities with slime. Some of those are the following:  

  • Peel Slime: Put pencils in a thin coat of slime. After that, let your child pull the slime away from the pencil. Doing this can strengthen their hand’s muscles, allow them to use both hands separately, and encourage tripod grasp.
  • Push Beads Into Slime: Pressing beads into slime is good for improving tripod grasp, enhancing motoric separation, the opening of the thumb web space, and enhancement of the hand’s arch.
  • Push Holes Into The Slime: Your child can make a slime circle by rubbing the slime blob between two hands. This activity helps with bilateral coordination, which refers to using both sides of the body to do an activity. Likewise, after creating a slime circle, let your child place it on a table. Then, allow him to push his index finger into the slime until it reaches the table surface. Doing this helps with finger isolation and hand strength. Finger isolation is crucial for controlling the pencil when writing.

You can encourage your child to do these fun slime activities to improve his motor skills.

 

  • Drawing

Drawing is an activity that typically engages a child from the moment they learn to grasp a crayon. Besides being extremely fun, there are other reasons young children like to draw. 

For one, this activity offers independent play, sensory development, and physical movement. Scribbling also helps release one’s feelings. In addition, along with dancing, singing, and other kinds of artistic expression, drawing also allows for generating neural connections and healthy brain development. 

It also helps with honing your child’s gross motor skills. This type of motor skill concerns the movement of larger muscle groups that play a role in your child’s coordination and balance. Likewise, it also helps with fine motor skills, which are tied to the smaller muscles of the fingers and hands. This motor skill is vital for drawing, writing, and other tasks requiring hand-eye coordination.

Take Away

Honing your child’s motor skills is crucial if you want them to do other complex tasks over time. Some examples of these tasks that require motor skills are writing using a pencil, opening a lunchbox, or tying their shoes. 

Fortunately, some activities can hone your child’s motor skills. For instance, your child can play with slime, which helps with hand-eye coordination and hand dexterity. They can also play with puzzles which improve hand control and strength. Lastly, drawing can enhance their gross and fine motor skills. Hopefully, you learned something from this article that can help your child.

 

ico mamatips
Written by:
2022-11-18

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