The Filipino Mom Blog

Can your child jump, hop, skip, and gallop? Can your child button, zip and snap snaps on clothing? Can he/she tie his/her own shoes? Can he/she cut a paper with scissors with ease?

If your child is about three to four years old and your answers to the questions are mostly yes, then your child is on the right track as far as fine and gross motor skills are concerned.

Those mentioned are just some of the things that most preschoolers can already do. Activities which may sound so simple to do, yet many don’t realize their importance.

When my four-year old son was seen by a neuro-developmental pediatrician for assessment, one of the activities she asked my son to do was to cut a shape on a piece of paper using scissors. But because my son wasn’t familiar then with using scissors, he failed to do what was asked by the DevPed. “Naku Mommy, mukhang hindi pa yata nakakahawak ng scissors itong anak nyo ah,” I remembered these were the very words that the DevPed remarked while doing the assessment.

But it’s so true. My son never really got a chance to hold and explore scissors if not for that assessment. At home, scissors are just like knives that are kept away from him because of our fear that it might hurt him. And in his former school, scissors are strictly a no-no too for preschoolers as the school viewed scissors to be dangerous for kids.

But what we didn’t know was that, our seemingly being overprotective of our son deprived him to develop his fine motor skills. And so now that we are aware, we’ve erased the wrong notion and let our son use scissors, guided of course, as we do arts and crafts activities every now and then.

Aside from cutting with scissors, there are a lot of activities that we can do to help our kids enhance their fine and gross motor skills.   My son’s occupational therapist handed me a checklist of activities that we can to do to develop the skills.  Here’s a run down of those:

FINE MOTOR SKILLS. Fine motor skills are those skills that allow you to develop the ability to do such things as write and manipulate small objects. Try these simple activities to help your children along the way.

Painting. Try to alternate between large, stubby brushes and smaller, finer brushes. The smaller the brush is, the more control they need over their hands. Also try getting them to do some painting with cotton swabs. This affords some really fine work and allows them to develop their pincer grip, needed for learning how to write.

Puzzles. For younger children, start them off with large peg puzzles. These are puzzles that have the little knob sticking out of each puzzle piece. This allows them to garner more control over their finger movement. For starter puzzles you can buy them with very large knobs that require a full-fisted grip then you can move onto the puzzles that require a thumb and forefinger grip (pincer grip).

Playdough. Children will get some great fine motor skill exercise out of Playdough especially if you add some extra equipment such as rollers and cookie cutters.

Cutting. Bring out the scissors and some old magazines and let them get to work. Cutting requires a lot of coordination. For younger children who are just getting used to manipulating scissors, you can buy them without any metal. They are sharp enough to cut through paper but not much else.

Threading. Buy some beads to thread or use some colored pasta and string. This activity requires a lot of control and a steady hand. Perfect practice for fine motor development.

Blocks. Start out with larger blocks and move your way towards the smaller variety. The smaller the blocks, the more control they need to develop. But be careful not to introduce blocks that are small too quickly - they will only get frustrated and give up.

GROSS MOTOR SKILLS. Gross motor skills are big motor skills; i.e. running, jumping and hopping etc. They require balance and coordination. Try some of these activities.

Running. Create a game that requires moving quickly. This is great for encouraging the development of gross motor coordination.  Our very own Patintero and Habulan is very apt for to develop the skill.

Climbing. Take them to the park and let them climb all over the jungle gyms. Climbing is an innate characteristic of children. You may have noticed it when they started climbing the coffee table as a toddler! Each time they try, they will get a little better because they are developing those important gross motor muscles.

Hopping. Try a game of hopscotch. All that hopping about is developing some balance.  What’s with Piko Tumbang Preso, and Luksong Lubid for?

Ball play. Kicking, rolling and throwing are some great ways to encourage gross motor development and you don’t need anything more that a ball and a little bit of room. Smaller balls require a little finer control but you should aim to get a ball that is easily picked up. A very large ball for a younger child can be difficult to manipulate and get very frustrating.

Batting. Get out the baseball bat and polish up your batting skills. This is a hard one for kids to master but well worth the reward. Try a bigger, thicker bat to start with and work your way up to a smaller one. You can also try tennis, golf or racquetball.

It is important to remember though that kids are different and develop at different paces. One child may or may not be able to do some of the specific things.  Let us always remember that each child is unique and the best we can do is to guide them and help them develop the skills.

(Images from National Commission for Culture and Arts and Maggie Byer Sprinzeles)