LEGO Head Rescue: A Fine Motor Activity

I must admit, this LEGO head fine motor activity that my son has been doing every day with therapy putty for the last few weeks has me laughing every time. There's just something so funny about LEGO heads to me! Is that weird?

Fine motor skills can be a big challenge for a lot of kids. Activities like working with clothespins or lacing cards can be a bit help. Sometimes you need a fine motor activity that makes everyone laugh! This activity is desinged to address fine motor strength and dexterity.

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They key to doing fine motor work at home with my son is not to let him think he is doing therapy. If he knew my motivation he would cross his arms and walk away. That's why this particular exercise works so well. Plus, it's just fun to play with putty.

What you need

• An assortment of LEGO minifigures. You probably already have those!
• Therapy Putty. I purchased a CanDo Theraputty set and it has been working really well for us. I like that there are different strengths from which to choose.
• A sense of humor.
• A LEGO loving kid.

Instructions

You probably figured it out already, but here goes:

• Remove LEGO minifigure heads (is it just me, or are LEGO faces angrier these days?). You can do this yourself or ask your child to do it. It depends on the mood of the kid as to how I proceed. Sometimes I prep the activity for him so it's waiting for him when he comes home from school.
• Flatten a ball of putty, scatter heads and fold them into the putty.
• Encourage your child to find the heads and return them to their bodies. (This all sounds a little macabre, doesn't it?)

Variations

• Hide all body parts in the putty. We've done this, too. You could use a different color putty (The CanDo Theraputty comes in a set of 6 colors. Each color is a different strength.) for each body part or hide a complete set of parts in each color. Or mix it up each time to keep it fresh.
• Hide small LEGO pieces in a putty ball and challenge your child to build something with the pieces.
• You can also do this with play dough, although the putty provides much more resistance.

MORE: 34 items to use with play dough to practice fine motor skills

So far, my 5-year-old has not gotten bored with this fine motor activity at all. I try to do it at least once a day to help increase his hand strength. You can see in the photos that there is a lot of pushing and pulling and maneuvering of his fingers so I'm assuming it helps with dexterity, too.

Do you have a fine motor activity that your child particularly enjoys? We also loved this fine motor art project with string. I'm always looking for new ideas!

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