Tarryn Dee and Renee Townson
Over the last 18 months many of our little ones have been in and out of kindergarten or childcare due to the pandemic. As a result, it’s really common for many parents to worry about the development of their children’s fine motor skills or pre-writing skills before they set off to school.
As a paediatric Occupational Therapist, here are some of my top tips and activities for developing pre-writing skills and fine motor skills in kids who are preschool-aged.
Tips for developing a mature pencil grasp:
- Dot painting with earbuds
- Break up crayons into little crayon rocks to draw with
- Hold a little button or piece of Blu Tack between your little finger and ring finger to help with finger isolation. Hold a pencil in a tripod grip with the remaining three fingers
- Painting, drawing or colouring on a vertical surface like a window or backyard fence. This helps with developing efficient positioning for the hand and wrist for writing and drawing
- Get creative with stickers! Peeling and pushing stickers onto surfaces is wonderful for developing a pincer grasp
- Hide beads or buttons in therapy putty or play dough, then your child can have fun finding the treasures. Excellent for getting the pincer fingers working hard
- Tongs or tweezers to pick up objects and place them into cups / bowls / boxes
- Games like Connect 4 or Pick up Sticks
- Construction activities like Lego, Duplo or Connetix
Tips for developing Pre-writing skills:
- Practice drawing shapes like circles, lines and squares (diagonals like triangles come later!)
- Use your finger to draw in a tray of sand, salt or shaving cream for a multi-sensory approach to drawing skills
- Encourage your little ones to try to draw a picture of themselves and other family members
- Tracing with thick textas or whiteboard markers
- Use playdough to form letters that are in your child’s first name
- Use bath crayons or washable paints in the bath or shower on the glass door or tiles
Seek help from an Occupational Therapist for fine motor skills if:
- Your child does not appear to have a consistent dominant hand by the time they start school
- Your child is switching hands for writing and drawing by the age of 5 years old
- They appear to have weak hand muscles and have difficulty manipulating items like play dough or Lego by the time they start school
- They are writing their name with reversal of letters
- They report pain in their hand when writing or drawing
- They have messy, slow or laborious drawing, colouring or writing skills
- They have difficulty using scissors
My favourite advice to leave parents with is that your child does not have to be able to write their name or the alphabet before they start school. The most important thing before starting school is that they are motivated to give it a go and will participate in some drawing, colouring or writing activities. They will learn how to write when they start school.
