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 Fine Motor Information: Fine motor skills involve the small muscles of the hand. These muscles develop differently for all
children and some children require specific work in fine motor
development. Fine motor skills are
important in most school activities as well as in life, in general.
Click here to see a variety of activities you can do to help your child
develop his fine motor skills.
 Everyday Fine Motor Skills:
Getting dressed can be tricky for little fingers developing their fine
motor skills. While it takes extra time
to allow your child to dress himself, it will give him extra practice in
working with snaps, buttons and zippers.
Shoes with laces or drawstring pants also provide good opportunities to
practice these skills.
Pull out the sweaters and jackets and
practice! This can be a skill that takes
many tries to master. It may be easier
for children to practice this without wearing the jacket or sweater and once
they can do the buttons, snaps or zippers like that, then try to do it with the
jacket on.
 Writing:
It is important to expose your child to the concept of writing. Even if your child doesn’t seem ready to
write letters, it is a good idea to keep paper, notebooks and a variety of fun
pens and pencils nearby. Your child will
develop the fine motor skills needed for letter writing by drawing lines,
circles and zig-zags when playing with writing. If your child is ready to write
letters, visit the reading section of this Pre-K page to help you start your
child on the path he will continue in Kindergarten.
Pick a letter to write each day.
Use the writing paper and letter formation guides (lower and upper) on this website to
teach your child how to write the letters.
If writing letters is frustrating for your child, spend the time
modeling how to write a letter a day for your child and begin to have him
practice as he gets better with it.
 Name Writing:
Your child should be able to write his/her first name. Make sure you are teaching your child that a
name begins with an uppercase letter and all other letters in the name are
lowercase.
Make name writing a part of your child’s
daily routine. You can make it your
child’s job to label her toys or books with her name. You can make it a routine for your child to
“sign in” at dinnertime. A special way
to document your child’s progress with name writing can be to keep a Name Book. While you are practicing name writing with
your child regularly, choose one day a week to be the day your child writes in her
Name Book. You will soon see that
flipping through the Name Book shows you and your child how she gets better and
better each week!
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