An essential component of your child’s physical development is mastering the usage of their small muscles which can be found in their fingers, and others. This term is known as fine motor skills which will continue to develop and gets better as your child grows and put the skills into practice.
It is important to help your child in refining their fine motor skills by allowing them to play with different toys that are great at working the related muscles. Such an assortment of toys is dedicated to support fine motor skills development and it allows your children to work on their hand-and-eye coordination, dexterity, grasps, and more.
FINE MOTOR SKILLS
A child’s fine motor skills comprise of the use of their smaller muscles within their hands. Common activities that can refine this process include writing with pencils, cutting with scissors, building with blocks, doing up buttons during dress-up, and opening and closing of little boxes. The efficiency of fine motor skills influences the quality of the results attained through the completion of a given task as well as the time taken to complete it. Efficient fine motor skills need several independent skills to collaborate in order to successfully manipulate or control a certain object or to complete a task.
THE IMPORTANCE OF FINE MOTOR SKILLS
Fine motor skills allow children to perform everyday activities as well as being good at academics. If a child is unable to perform everyday activities, their self-esteem may suffer which in turn may compromise their ability to perform well in their academics. Such a situation may limit their play options as they are poor at developing independence. Let us explore several toy options that can support the development of fine motor skills in children.
PUZZLES
Puzzles are great toys that support a child’s development of his/her fine motor skills. The child needs to grasp on little puzzle pieces, match them with the correct patterns, colors, and so on. Get hold of age-appropriate puzzles which are much easier and fun for preschoolers as compared to adult puzzles that are more intense.
DOLLS AND DRESS-UP
Your child may already be learning how to get dressed which is also a great activity to build on their fine motor skills. A toy that can also provide the same experience is a doll which your child can play dress-up on. Doing up buttons, zippers, shoelaces, and more is all part of refining their fine motor skills.
BUILDING BLOCKS
Building blocks are great at harnessing a child’s creativity. Your child will put their fingers to good use by lifting the building blocks and connecting them together to form a new structure.
STACKERS
Toys like stackers work in a similar manner to building blocks. They are great for developing fine motor skills as children need to utilize their fingers to link each stack on top of one another. Stackers also educate children on the different colors, shapes, and sizes at the same time.
SKETCH BOARDS
This classic toy offers children an opportunity to brush up on their fine motor skills as well as their creativity. They can create various beautiful drawings even without the need for batteries, sounds, or animations. Sketch boards are bound to keep children entertained over a prolonged period of time.