This is the first time I’m posting for “try It Tuesday” over at 5 Minutes for Special Needs. The premise is to give ideas to other moms, whether it be general or something that might help their child’s development.
Meggers has had some developmental delays, here are a few activities we’ve done to help her develop her Fine Motor Skills.
For the first, you’ll need a tray, some different color/size beans or beads, a pair of tweezers, Dixie cups, wax paper and rubber bands.
Have your little one pick up the beans/beads using the tweezers. They can separate them by color, size or simply count them. Meggers likes to drop them into Dixie cups and then we cover the Dixie cup with some wax paper and an elastic band to turn it into a music maker.
Meggers also used to have a really hard time holding paper and cutting at the same time. One of her teachers gave us the best idea to get her confident about cutting and she loved it. We would draw a few lines about a ruler length apart on a piece of paper and then tape the paper to the refrigerator. It would make it so much easier for her to learn how to cut straight lines. You can make it lots of fun by getting some decorative paper (or they can decorate it) and make a paper lantern.
These are just a couple of things we’ve done to help Megger, hopefully they’re ideas that can help someone else.
Coffee, Chocolate & Xanax 
Noah can’t cut right either. I didn’t know it was a developmental delay though. I’m going to try the refridgerator thing. Thanks for the idea. =)
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That’s a great idea, it’s such a hard thing for kids to learn… I’ll have to try it with Rye. Thanks for the tip!
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I always loved making music makers. Frog would like watching things drop into the cup – then he would want to pour them out! Great idea for cutting – thanks!!
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These are some wonderful suggestions – we have definitely had fine motor challenges with our son, and I love these ideas!
Thanks for participating! (Trish @ 5MFSN)
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Wenders – It depends what age they are. Meggers had trouble manipulating the paper whilst trying to cut in a straight line so this helped her get the cutting down and then we worked on holding the paper and not cutting our fingers. Yikes!
Sam – Glad I could help.
Frogs Mom – Isn’t it fun! This is soooo inexpensive and it can hold Meggers attention for an hour or so…lol
Wheresthebox – Thanks for all you guys do over at 5 mins for special needs. Enjoy!
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Aha! Today we’ve been doing perler bead [with ironing on this very hot day] Never thought we’d get this far in the fine motor department!
Cheers
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thank you for this great idea! my niece will have to try this!!!
franzi
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hey we do these skills activity too with my 4 and 5 year olds kids in school 🙂
sorting beans, buttons are good. getting them to finger tracing over sandpaper is good too. besides enhancing their fine motors, they’ll get sensorial too 🙂
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Great ideas! Can I add one? Lacing beads is a really great way to work on the fine motor skills, but the shoe lace can be really flimsy. Instead use a pipe cleaner with a knot at one end. It helps keep the beed on so your little one can then pull it down to the end with the know without it falling off over and over. Also, the pipe cleaner adds a little friction that helps with had hand strengthening (just a little of course.)
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Oooo great idea Debbie, love the idea of the pipe cleaner because Meggers sometimes gets frustrated with the strings. Thanks for adding that!!! Never thought to tie a knot in the pipe cleaner..lol
Take Care
kirst
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