Fine Motor Skills

Hume Valley School Occupational Therapy Department

1. Regulation Activity- Wheelbarrow:

This activity is intended to get our bodies regulated, alert, and ready to focus.

KEY SKILLS:

Sensory regulation- proprioception Core & shoulder strength & stability Motor planning Problem solving

WHAT YOU NEED:

Three beanbags/soft toys A bucket Space to move around in

ACTIVITY:

1. Place a bucket or alternative container in the centre of room.2. Place all bean bags at the starting point approximately 1.5m from bucket.3. Hold your child’s feet and ask them to walk on their hands. (See video of how to set

up a wheelbarrow walk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umtTnKXkqc8).4. Ask and help (if needed) your child to reach the bean bags and to place the bean bag

on the back of their neck (resting between the shoulder blades).5. Ask your child to wheelbarrow walk towards the container and drop the bean bag

inside.6. Repeat these steps until all the bean bags are in the bucket.

Make sure you’re safe: When holding your child’s feet bend your legs or squat, don’t bend from your back. If this is too tricky for your child, try the “Easier” options

Suggested time: 2-5 minutes

TO MAKE IT EASIER: Hold wheelbarrow position for 10 seconds. Repeat. Your child can practise the same body position by laying tummy down on the couch

or floor while doing a puzzle or a reading a book.

TO MAKE IT HARDER: Put bean bag and bucket a further apart Put bean bags in different corners of the room Use more bean bags in the activity

2. Fine motor skills- Pencil Aerobics & other hand warm upsThis activity works on developing fine motor skills and can either be used on its own or as a ‘warm up’ before writing (if using before writing choose less challenging options because you won’t want to make your child’s fingers too tired before writing).

KEY SKILLS:

Pinch grip to support functional pencil grip Finger strength Finger coordination and manual dexterity Finger endurance (being able to do activities for longer before the fingers and hands

get tired)

WHAT YOU NEED:

A pencil

See here for a video which demonstrates the below exercises: Finger aerobics https://youtu.be/hweVIGSf878

ACTIVITY:

Ask your child to hold the pencil in their dominant hand or ‘writing hand’ (if known).

1. Caterpillar walk: hold the pencil like the picture below and inch your fingers up and down the pencil (3 times)

2. Pencil windmill: use fingers to turn pencil (5 times)

3. Push and pull: hold for 5 seconds each

4. Cross your fingers: both hands hold for 5 seconds

5. Finger Countdown: tap each finger to thumb counting down from 10. First your left hand 10-9-8-7-6, right hand 5-4-3-2-1!

Suggested time: 5-10 minutes

Photo source: file:///C:/Users/09882207/Downloads/FineMotorWarmsUpToHandwriting.pdf