Fine Motor Skills Activity for Preschoolers
We are working on developing fine motor skills a lot around here lately. Four year-old New Kid was recently diagnosed with pretty significant fine motor delays. Even though he now receives occupational therapy services at school we are supplementing with a range of fine motor skill activities at home to strengthen those important finger muscles!
One of our activities is scribbling in a journal. While New Kid cannot yet write letters he will scribble. He likes the sense of ownership over his “writing” that keeping a journal gives him and that motivates him to keep practicing. Scribbling is also very important for developing pre-writing and pre-reading skills.
Using different types of writing implements and materials increases the variety of sensory experiences, so I like to mix things up during our journaling sessions. I include:
- Stubby crayons with the paper removed. Using a short crayon requires a stronger pincer grasp than using a long one.
- Colored pencils. They require more pressure than markers.
- Markers. Ink provides a satisfying saturated color, but mix up the size: include both fat and skinny pens.
- Oil and chalk pastels with paper removed. Pastels’ textures offer a new sensory experience.
- Stickers. Peeling stickers off the backing takes work and feeling the sticky side adds in a bit of sensory fun.
- Writing tools with triangular barrels. The unusual shape encourages children to use the correct pincer grasp.
Do you encourage your preschooler to write in a journal? Does he or she have a favorite type of crayon or marker?
We do this, too – and my kids love it!
I love the journal idea- we could each have one and have a set time to do it together while making them available for the girls to do on their own too. Carly can write letters but she doesn’t use the correct grasp- and she’s stubborn. What is the reasoning behind removing the crayon paper?
If you remove the paper then kids can use the crayon as a sort of “roller”. It just expands the options, plus feeling the crayon instead of the paper is a different sensory experience. His teacher also told me to have him remove the paper himself because that in itself is a good fine motor activity.
These are great writing activities. My oldest was diagnosed with the same thing at 4. He still has to work at the mechanics of writing. Some of his favorite activities at 4 were finding hidden objects in play dough or clay and coloring with crayon rocks. Playing on the piano really helped build hand strength too.
Thanks for the suggestions. Now this is motivation for me to get our piano fixed.
Thanks for these ideas! My four-year-old boy is a leftie, so I am not always sure how to help him position his hand across the paper. He often has his hand floating above the paper when writing. I’ll be sure to give him a variety of tools to practice writing with.
By the way, I’m new to blogging and was wondering how you do those beautiful titles on your pictures. Do you have a certain program you use for that? So far all I’ve used is creative kit in Picasa.
Thanks for all your fabulous work!
Anna – I use picmonkey to create the photos. It’s so much fun to use.
I just wanted to follow up to thank you for sending me to Picmonkey. I just love it! I really appreciate your taking the time to let me know what you use. Have a great day!
Anna
Haha, I can’t even remember when I did that, but you’re welcome!
My kids loved markers. We also would melt down crayon stubs into cupcake cups and they liked those when freshly made.
We once made crayons in the shape of numbers. They loved those.
My daughter has a few notebooks that she likes to draw in or take with us when we go places. She likes to sit outside sometimes and draw what she sees. You mentioned stickers…she loves those, too! When she first started using stickers we bought the ones that were a bit puffy and raised off the paper so they were a little easier to peel off.
Oooh, puffy stickers would be lots of fun.
I never thought to sit down and have a journaling session with my 3 year old. I bet she would love that. Do you think it would be alright to write down (maybe on the back) what she says about her picture? Or would that defeat the purpose of the journaling?
I don’t think it would defeat the purpose and it would be nice to look back and see what she said later on. I think your idea of writing on the back is good, though, that way she is the sole “owner” of the page. As an alternative you could write it down in a separate place just to keep for yourself!
I have just had my daughter start journaling. I found a composition book that is blank at the top and lined at the bottom and I let her draw a picture on her own or I will give her a topic to draw about and then I write what the picture is or a story she tells me about the picture. She loves it and sometimes she wants to do 2 or 3 pages!!
Stopping by from No Time for Flashcards link-up! 
That’s nice that you create the stories and pictures together!
great idea! My son is also a bit delayed on letter writing and his teachers have suggested we find fun ways to practice. This is so perfect for him.
Thanks! New Kid isn’t writing letters as all and I’m trying to be relaxed about that — not always easy!