Children start developing their fine motor skills in infancy and continue into their preschool years and beyond.
In this article, I’ll explain what fine motor skills are, why they’re important in the early years and how you can develop fine motor skills with 10 simple activities.
The skills that enable a child to move are known as motor skills. The two main types of motor skills are gross motor and fine motor.
It is important that both of these are well developed in children in order to be ready for school and to function independently.
What are Fine Motor Skills?
Fine motor skills refer to the ability of a child to control the small muscles of their body in order to perform certain functions, like writing or tying a shoelace.
It includes the small muscles in the hands, fingers, eyes, tongue and toes.
Fine Motor Skills Examples
Here are a few examples of using fine motor skills:
- Holding/handling small items
- Drawing, painting, etc.
- Turning the pages of a book
- Cutting, pasting and folding
- Eating
- Building with blocks and playing with small objects
- Self-care tasks such as dressing, buttoning, tying shoelaces, brushing teeth, etc.
- Writing
The Difference Between Fine and Gross Motor Skills
Gross motor refers to the development of the large muscles of the body which enable a child to walk, climb, balance, etc.
Fine motor refers to small muscle development which enables a child to hold a pencil or button a shirt.
It includes eye-hand coordination, eye-finger coordination, finger strength and control, as well as the development of muscles such as the toes, tongue and eyes.
Motor skills develop from the head downwards, and from the body outwards (to the limbs). Thereafter, the small muscles strengthen.
Gross motor skills, therefore, develop before fine motor skills.
This can be seen in preschool children who are skilled at climbing, running and walking but are still learning to hold a pencil or control a pair of scissors.
Why Are Fine Motor Skills Important?
Fine motor skills are important for several reasons.
Children must develop fine motor coordination in order to learn to perform basic everyday tasks such as dressing, tying shoelaces, preparing food, and other self-care tasks.
At school, they need to be able to cut, paste and draw and fine motor skills are absolutely essential for learning to write.
Before children can learn to write letters and have the finger strength and pencil control necessary to form them, they must develop their small muscles.
During the early years, it can be tempting to try to teach young toddlers and preschoolers to form letters and write as early as possible, but this is not necessary at such a young age.
Their muscles are not yet developed enough for the type of pencil control needed.
The early years are the time for developing pre-writing skills, mostly by doing activities that develop the finger muscles.
Physical development is one of the four major areas of your child’s growth, along with social, emotional and intellectual development.
Fine Motor Milestones in Young Children
Here is a brief outline of children’s fine motor development during the first 6 years.
If children reach all the fine motor milestones, they tend to cope better with the academic side of schoolwork, especially writing.
If they have difficulty performing some of the basic tasks, such as cutting or holding a crayon correctly, read on to find out how you can provide opportunities at home or in class to work on these basic skills.
These are the milestones according to Mary Sheridan, author of the book “From Birth to Five Years: Children’s Developmental Progress“.
Birth to 18 Months
During infancy and early toddlerhood, your child should learn to:
- Grasp toys in separate hands and bang them together
- Pick up small objects with a pincer grasp
- Point to an object with the index finger
- Drop and throw toys
- Start to build a basic tower of up to 3 blocks
- Grasp a crayon or pencil and scribble
- Point to pictures in books
2 Years
At this age, your child learns to:
- Build a tower of 6, 7 or more blocks
- Hold a pencil in the dominant hand and scribble
- Turn the pages of a book one at a time
- Recognise small details in pictures
- Begin to draw lines, circles and letters such as a “T” and “V”
3 Years
At 3, your child can:
- Build a tower with up to 10 blocks and build a bridge with 3 blocks
- Thread large wooden beads onto a string
- Hold a pencil with the correct grip – tripod pencil grasp – between the first two fingers and the thumb
- Draw a person with a head and a few features
- Paint with a large paintbrush
- Cut with toy scissors
4 Years
At 4, your child learns to:
- Build a tower of over ten blocks with bridges and build “steps” with blocks
- Use a correct, adult pencil grip
- Draw a person with arms, fingers, legs, etc.
- Draw a house
- Copy letters, crosses and circles
- Cut along a straight line
- Dress and undress himself
5 Years
From the age of 5, your child should be able to:
- Pick up and handle tiny items
- Copy and build more complex towers and constructions
- Show good control when writing with a pencil or painting with a brush
- Draw with details
- Colour his drawing and stay within the lines
- Copy a square and triangle
- Cut with accuracy
- Imitate “writing” by copying letters or words without necessarily knowing what he is writing
- Thread, lace and do simple embroidery
How to Improve Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills can be improved through basic, everyday activities. You do not need to buy any fancy equipment or fine motor packs.
Using everyday items, you can provide a wide array of fun activities that will strengthen the finger muscles.
My experience in the classroom has shown that many children are struggling nowadays with these basic skills and showing increased difficulty in writing.
This may be partly due to an increase in screen time and a reduction in playtime, resulting in poorly developed gross and fine motor skills.
Make sure your children have adequate playtime every day and that part of that time is spent doing simple art activities and other fine motor activities.
This post contains affiliate links for educational products that I personally recommend. If you purchase through one of them, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Read the terms and conditions for more details.
10 Fine Motor Skills Activities for Preschoolers
Here are 10 basic activities your kids should be doing as often as possible to ensure they develop their fine motor skills.
While there are endless activity ideas on Pinterest and Google for really creative fine motor activities, I thought I would simplify things by sharing 10 of the most basic things you can let your child do that will develop these important skills.
These are activities my kids did almost daily in my classroom.
You don’t need fancy gadgets. The most common and easy activities are usually the most effective ones.
I have also suggested different ways to do each activity.
Remember – the activity should focus on the process, not the product to have a positive impact on development and creativity. e.g. free drawing is far better than using a colouring book.
1. Drawing
Process art activities are one of the best ways to develop fine motor skills. Provide your child with daily opportunities to be creative, by using different materials and mediums.
Children should be drawing every day without fail. They want to draw and create by nature. Use the opportunity to introduce different mediums, such as:
- Drawing with wax crayons of different sizes and thicknesses (regular as well as jumbo, triangular crayons for little fingers):
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- Drawing with oil pastels, coloured pencils, led pencils, pens, washable markers and highlighters:
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- Drawing on a board with chalk or on the pavement outside with chalk (use large, sidewalk chalk and thin chalk):
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- Use any other medium you can think of. Get your child used to holding utensils of different sizes and shapes and learning to control them.
While it may be tempting to buy your child colouring-in books and let them colour in pre-drawn pictures, this does not inspire any creativity so use these sparingly.
Blank paper will stimulate creative drawing. A colouring-in page will not have the same effect!
Children go through predictable stages of drawing when they have enough opportunity to draw freely.
2. Painting
Painting is another favourite for all children. The messier the activity the better! There are many different ways to paint:
- Paint on paper with different-sized brushes, sitting down as well as standing up and painting at an easel.
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- Use finger paint – experiment with making patterns and imprints with the fingers.
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- Paint with leaves, twigs or other natural materials.
- Add dishwashing liquid to the paint and blow bubbles, then catch the bubbles on the paper.
- Use different types of paint – e.g. watercolours and tempera paint.
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Here are some fun finger painting ideas to try.
3. Cutting and Tearing
Cutting is an important skill that should be practised regularly.
With time, children learn to hold a pair of scissors properly and hold the paper with their other hand, controlling the paper as they cut. Demonstrate the correct grip, and help correct it when necessary.
Cutting activities include:
- Cutting paper without lines – cutting freely
- Cutting along lines – e.g. straight lines, wavy lines
- Cutting out shapes – e.g squares, triangles, circles
- Cutting out pictures along the lines
Cut different types of paper (e.g. cardboard, newspaper, tissue paper, etc.) with blunt-nosed scissors.
- Includes 3 Kids’ Safety Scissors for “ouch-free” paper cutting
- 3 different cut styles for a variety of toddler art projects: straight, wavy, and zigzag.
Tearing is an excellent activity for developing the finger muscles. At first, the pieces will be large and random but eventually, your child will have the control to tear small pieces of paper into the sizes they want.
- Let your toddler or preschooler (even your baby) tear paper freely and get used to controlling it with their fingers.
- Make a collage with coloured paper or magazines and tear pieces of paper to paste onto the picture.
- Make different coloured confetti by tearing little papers and separating them according to colour.
- Tear different materials – newspaper, paper, magazine paper, cardboard, tissue paper, etc.
4. Pasting
Children need time to learn how to apply the correct amount of glue to something (whether liquid or a stick), how to paste it exactly where they want it to go, paste it straight, etc.
Pasting can be done in various ways:
- Use liquid glue (especially for younger children) and let them get their fingers in there! Many children struggle to have their hands get dirty in the sandpit or with glue and paint. Expose them early.
- Stick random paper tearings or cuttings with craft glue.
- Construct with paper and boxes and use liquid glue. Encourage them to persist when trying to get something to stick together. Take out rolls of tape and let them experiment with taping things together.
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- Make slime and bond materials like paper, wood, fabric and ceramics
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5. Playdough
Children love playing with playdough. It was my personal favourite in the classroom and I had it out every morning.
I would alternate between homemade no-cook dough, store-bought dough and clay (below is the kind we used).
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Not only does playdough strengthen the fingers and develop motor control, but it also stimulates creativity, planning and thinking skills.
- Allow lots of time for free play with playdough, without any cutters.
- At other times, provide cookie cutters, tools, etc.
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- 1/3 inch comfort edge and deep blade for ease of use
- Encourage your child to find their own items to use with playdough (that are not part of a set), such as cups from the kitchen.
- Use toys to go along with their playdough creations (such as dinosaurs on their playdough mountain) and encourage some fantasy play at the same time. Next time they can make the dinosaur out of playdough as well.
This is also a highly therapeutic and relaxing activity. Children really should have daily opportunities to play with dough.
There are endless playdough recipes on the internet, depending on how fancy or lasting you’d like the dough to be. Here are some basic homemade playdough recipes to try.
6. Threading and Lacing
Threading is an excellent activity for developing fine motor skills. Many children really struggle with this so make it a priority to teach your child to thread.
This activity can be done from an early age
- Thread empty toilet rolls/knitting reels onto a string.
- Offer large beads or even pasta noodles and thread a simple necklace.
- As your child gets older, the holes should get smaller. Move to small beads that require a lot of concentration and effort to thread.
Here is a set of threading beads:
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Similar to threading, but a different skill, lacing is excellent for developing eye-finger coordination.
To make a lacing tool, simply cut out a shape from firm cardboard, punch holes around the edges and lace a string or piece of wool around the shape, or use a set of lacing cards:
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7. Construction
Construction is a great activity for developing both gross and fine motor control.
This can include constructing with blocks, Lego or other fine motor toys, or building with boxes and waste products. (Read about the benefits of Lego).
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- Special pieces encourage imaginative building with endless possibilities
While store-bought construction packs are great (e.g. a kit for building an aeroplane), they are totally unnecessary.
Have a big basket in your house – as your child probably has at school – and fill it with toilet rolls, boxes, paper and any other useful waste materials.
You will watch your child wracking their brains to try and get the wing to stay on or the building to not collapse and they will be learning to solve problems they won’t encounter in the ready-made packs.
Have all types of construction blocks available, in different sizes.
As the blocks get smaller, your child will rely more and more on fine motor control to manipulate them.
A good set of wooden blocks, like these, should be a must in every home and school:
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- MULTIPLE DEVELOPMENTAL BENEFITS: Our blocks for imaginative play are ideal for introducing early math...
8. Puzzles
Puzzles are great as building them develops cognitive skills as well as fine motor skills. Even toddlers can build basic puzzles.
- Start with large wooden puzzles that your child can hold that have the right number of pieces for your child’s level.
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- The right level is the puzzle that your child enjoys and can do, with a few challenges. If they leave the puzzle and give up it is probably too advanced.
- As your child matures, move on to puzzles with smaller pieces – and more pieces. These require a lot of fine motor control to join and match, as well as a lot of brainpower.
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- 24-piece wooden jigsaw puzzle
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Get started with fun printable puzzles, available in the FREE set of printables at the end of the post.
9. Pegboards
Pegboards are great because the pieces are tiny and your child must learn to hold them correctly, hold them the right way up and insert them carefully into the holes.
They provide quite a challenge for a child and require a lot of focus and control.
- Start with pegboards that are larger and move onto smaller ones as kids gain finger control.
- Allow them to peg randomly until they are ready to create patterns or pictures (freely).
- Introduce pattern cards that children can follow to re-create a set pattern.
A creative parent can find a way to make a pegboard out of wood and makeshift pegs, however, this is one item I would buy. Here’s a good set:
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Pegboards are great for many reasons – they develop fine motor skills, they teach children about patterns, and they provide endless mathematical experiences (such as arithmetic, geometry, area, square numbers etc).
10. Pick Up Sticks
This is one of my personal favourites. Pick-up sticks develop a child’s focus, finger control and fine muscles. It will be tough to play at first but your child will love the challenge of making sure the sticks don’t move.
- This simple yet classic game hones hand-eye coordination and helps develop a child's fine motor skills.
- The game consists of 41 thin wooden sticks in assorted colors, each measuring 9.5-inches long.
This fine motor game can also be played with straws, twigs from the garden or long cocktail sticks.
What Happens if a Child Has Difficulties with Fine Motor Skills?
If your child is experiencing difficulty with tasks that are age-appropriate and that he should be able to do, he may require the intervention of an occupational therapist.
Some of these signs, listed by Martie Pieterse in her book”Language and School Readiness“, may also be signs of motor developmental delays:
- Clumsiness
- Poor self-image – this happens because a child does not have adequate motor control and therefore does not explore and experiment as much as others do
- Poor concentration
- Poor posture – this child may tire easily and prefer to lie down
If the problem does not seem serious, you may prefer to do an intensive few weeks of fine motor activities at home with your child.
Once some time has passed, judge if there has been an improvement. It may be better to send your child to an occupational therapist for an assessment and to determine how you can best help him.
The therapist may suggest activities to do at home or may feel regular therapy sessions are necessary.
Here is an article explaining what occupational therapists do and how they work with children.
Either way, make sure your child receives adequate support as early as possible.
Ignoring these kinds of signs only compounds the problem and children end up struggling to write and complete their work in the early grades.
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Aneke Chinyere Innocentia
Thursday 6th of July 2023
Well received, thank You, I need more of it.ok
Tanja Mcilroy
Wednesday 19th of July 2023
Thanks for the positive feedback! I'll be sure to create more content like this.
Yen
Friday 29th of July 2022
Your resource is really helpful. Thanks for your support
Tanja Mcilroy
Friday 29th of July 2022
Thanks, Yen!
ramya
Saturday 12th of September 2020
Thanks mam for amazing and valuable comments for me
Tanja Mcilroy
Thursday 17th of September 2020
I'm glad you found these valuable!
LB
Thursday 14th of May 2020
FANTASTIC. RESOURCES! Simply explained and create ideas fo home! Thank you!
Aisha Muhammadu Zakari
Friday 10th of July 2020
FANTASYIC!
Tanja Mcilroy
Monday 18th of May 2020
Thanks so much for your comment. I'm glad you found these ideas useful! Tanja
Ellen Stelling
Saturday 16th of November 2019
Always helpful for the 2 preschoolers who come to my home periodically. I am a Grandma.
Tanja Mcilroy
Monday 18th of November 2019
Thanks for your comment Ellen. I'm glad these tips are helpful!