Carmen Knight, M.A.T., Early Childhood and Special Education

Fine motor skills are such a large part of our everyday lives. Young children need to have strong fine motor skills for self-help skills like picking up small bites of food and using a fork. As they grow older and transition into a preschool classroom, they will need these fine motor skills to hold and use a crayon or pencil correctly and cut using scissors. All these skills you can begin working on now with fun and educational summer crafts.

Crafts are a fun activity used by therapist to work on different developmental skill sets with fine motor being at the top of the list. Using crafts during a therapy session allows patients to have fun without focusing on the fact that they are participating in an educational activity. Before beginning the craft, assess language and cognitive skills by reviewing colors, shapes, body parts, etc. Using this cute bug finger puppet, I review the colors of the bug and the sound that it makes. I encourage my patient to run and make a buzzing noise like the bee.

Fine motor development begins when I ask the child to take each sticker off the sticker backing to create their craft. This is a great opportunity to work on pincer grasp. Folding the body of the bee, fastening the tab and then wrapping the pipe cleaners to complete the look are all great ways to engage the muscles of the hand (depending on age and development of my patients, other crafts can include cutting or coloring in order to work on precision).

Now, the real fun begins as I have the child place the bug on their finger and let the imaginative play begin!  All these small movements require coordination between muscles. As these fine motor skills develop, everyday activities will become easier and less frustrating.

SmileMakers offers a variety of craft kits that will allow your child to make developmentally appropriate gains in all areas of development. Check out SmileMakers crafts and other items to use as part of your educational toolbox to make each summer session fun.