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Fine Motor Skills
Many children have difficulty with fine-motor skills. Fine motor activities require the use of small muscle groups for controlled movements. These skills are essential for the child to successfully engage in cutting, coloring, writing, grasping, and manipulation of objects.
Hand/Finger Strengthening
Some children just do not have the finger or hand strength needed to complete these tasks. Thera-putty is sometimes used to help with finger and hand strength. This putty is kind of like play dough only harder to squeeze. Children practice squeezing and finding small objects in this putty. This helps to strengthen the hand and to develop a pincer grasp. We also have children practice tearing paper, crumbling paper, cutting on various thicknessess of paper, squeezing tasks, etc.
Click on the link below to find out more activities that increase hand strengthening.
Cutting
Some children have difficulty cutting. They may snip instead of actually cutting, or they may not be able to perform the open and close actions. Other children have trouble rotating the paper while cutting, or staying on the lines. Occupational Therapists can assist in this area in many different ways. Some adaptations an OT might do is draw a darker, bigger line for them to cut on, use adaptive scissors, or have them practice cutting straight lines instead of curved lines.
Grasping and Manipulating Objects
Occupational Therapists also work on picking up small objects and manipulating them. Some common objects children may pick up and manipulate are: puzzles pieces, coins, toys, and pencils.
Handwriting and Coloring
An Occupational Therapist can also assist in handwriting and coloring skills, by working on fine motor activities and writing programs (example: Handwriting Without Tears). These handwriting programs make it easier for some children to learn to write. For example, Handwriting Without Tears uses a dot to represent the starting point for each letter. Occupational Therapist work with children on using their wrist and fingers to write or color, instead of their whole arm. They may also work on pre-writing strokes, such as making slanted lines, crosses, or tracing. Adaptive pencil grips, slant boards and special paper can be given to help improve handwriting.
