Developing fine motor skills and strengthening fingers

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Suggestions on how to develop fine motor skills and strengthening fingers

Young children with a vision impairment will profit from exercises to develop their finger strengthening skills, in order to prepare them for developing their typing/ braille skills later on.

Here are some ideas for games/activities to do at home in order to develop these skills:

  • Create objects (e.g. animals)/ shapes out of clay/ play doh – rolling, forming a ball, separating, create large and small shapes
  • Building with lego
  • Creating shapes/ letters in sand/ soil/ paint
  • Creating a puppet out of an old sock 
  • Sorting toys into sizes/ colours
  • Marbles – rolling, counting, sorting
  • Thread beads on string
  • Pick up a variety of objects with pegs
  • Decorate fairy cakes (squeezing a tube of icing/ placing small decorations)
  • Create a picture/ collage by cutting different pieces of paper into small pieces and placing them on the picture/ rolling crepe paper into small balls and glue them onto the picture
  • Creating patterns/ animals out of pipe cleaners

 

Useful websites on how to develop fine motor skills and strengthening fingers            

Decorate a picture (e.g. an Easter Egg) using resources such as buttons - https://funlearningforkids.com/

Collecting resources from your walk (e.g. leaves, pebbles, shells and create a collage/ sort into shapes/colours/size) - https://www.playfulchildhoods.wales/

Fine motor skills – pencil control, cutting skills, dot to dot, creating patterns with buttons, practicing tracing/ forming   numbers https://www.twinkl.co.uk - (create an account by entering email and the username PARENTSTWINKLHELPS for a month’s free account)

 

Useful Apps on how to develop fine motor skills and strengthening fingers                  

  • Llawysgrifen
  • Awesome Xylophone
  • Tap the Frog
  • Dexteria Jr (£3.99)