Gentle Child Sleep Consultancy &
Early Years Family Life Coach
Strengthening the Hand
I'm sure you have all heard that it is important for our young children to strengthen their hands in preparation for school, but did you know that they need strong hands for many ordinary daily activities too? Everyday tasks like successfully feeding themselves with a knife and fork, dressing themselves, ie doing up buttons and zips, cutting paper, opening containers, colouring in and, of course, writing.
The first step in our little one's development are gross motor skills, for example, walking, running, balancing big blocks and kicking a ball. Once these skills are mastered, they naturally start to look for activities that require a little more precision and are a little more challenging, for example, balancing on one leg, riding a bike, using a screwdriver and balancing little blocks.
Some children stay at this phase for a long time mastering these gross motor skills and need a little prompting to move on to the fine motor skills, which often involve the hand, concentration and hand eye coordination. The activities in the video below will help them move forward.
Just a reminder: be careful not to push your child ahead too quickly as there are important lessons to be learnt at each stage and one stage lays a solid foundation for the next.
A stronger hand (and fingers!) impacts directly on their fine motor skills and this finer work needs more hand eye coordination. If they do not feel confident in this area they might shy away from doing this work which then prevents them from practising, and eventually mastering it. Only through mastery will they build their confidence. This work usually requires the child to be more stationery and concentrated which can sometimes put children off.
My video will show you some fun activities that will feel more like playing. But each activity strengthens the hand and practices hand eye coordination. Everything I use is readily available in any normal kitchen and takes very little set up and tidy up time.
The best thing is, they are fun and your children will want to do them! Let them do the activities as many times as they want as they are feeding very real developmental needs. Don't fret about the mess. Their learning is more important!
Watch the video, below, and Enjoy.
To make for easier set up, I have taken photographs of each activity, allowing you to see the equipment needed. Note how every activity is on a tray which defines your child's work area and contains any mess.
Water transfer with a sponge.
Water transfer with a baster.
Water transfer with a dropper.
Making bubbles with a whisk.
Pegs
Transfer pasta using tongs.
Transfer chick peas using tweezers.
The video above shows you some fun, easy to set up examples but there are many more. Look around the house and let your creative juices flow. Just try out your activities first to make sure they are possible, not frustrating and actually do work those hands and fingers. Also remember to start your children off with activities they are likely to succeed in to prevent them giving up.
A few more examples are: give your children playdough to roll, squeeze and knead, or you could let them cook and bake with you in the kitchen. Squeezing stress balls or using spray bottles also strengthen the hand. Using a hole punch, opening and closing jars and containers, popping bubble wrap, threading beads and tearing paper into little bits to make a collage are all good activities for strengthening the hand and improving hand eye coordination.
So change things up regularly to keep things interesting and keep your child engaged.
Why not share photos of the fun activities you have developed and let me know how your little one has enjoyed all the activities!
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