

Finger and Fine motor and hand
Hi , in this blog , I will talk about some fabulous fine motor skills to work with individuals on the spectrum
What are fine motor movements –
These are skills are intricate finger and hand movements ,These skills are important for feeding , dressing , writing , playing with different toys , manipulating phone and tablets , switching on and off devices
Basically we use the small muscles in our hand to do all the activities mentioned
It is important to know and understand that for effective fine motor functioning , one needs good core stability and shoulder strength.
These big muscles provide stable base for hands .
Please note that when we reach our hand forward to hold and pick up a glass to bring it to our mouth , the force is also brought by good shoulder girdle strength and core musculature
That is why you must wonder why a physiotherapist of your child is doing lot of heavy work activities for core and upper limbs , he /she is also aiming to build good fine motor control and tone in your child by this muscle synergy
Also it is important to encourage good posture (head, neck, thorax and lumbar area ) for good fine motor work like writing , painting , playing with toys.
Here I ll suggest some fine motor activities /games to try with your child to work on fingers , hands and fine motor manipulation
- Sorting games with tweezers and tongs
- Piggy bank games
- Joiningg links and c links toys
- Legos and duplo blocks
- Drawing with different drawing tools like crayons , markers , brush pens
- Playing different musical instruments –keyboards and drums
- Peelings and pasting stickers , finger painting , ear bud painting
- Posting games – rolling balls to a target , marble runs ,shape sorters
- Threading and lacing kits
- Peg boards
- Building blocks
- Playdough , potter ‘s clay
- Making paper clip chains
- Cloth pegs to weaned off the paper or clothes
- Putting lids on containers of different kinds
- Cap on and off from different writing tools
- Origami and paper folding
- Lock and key set
- Kitchen set with encouragement for pouring , stirring , tossing and mixing, gardening set
- Weaving and knittting paper strip crafts
All these activities will indirectly help in making your child independent with different self help skills
Every activity will help to develop a new engram in the brain of your child , more and regular practice will strengthen that engram for that fine motor skills
What the child gains
- Good fine motor strength and tone
- Finger dissociation
- Development of instrumental life skills
- Inhand rotations
- Pincer , palmar , cylindrical , lumbrical and hook grip
- Dynamic tripod and scissor grip
- Creative epressive and better finger based motor planning
- Executive functions and problem solving
Hence fine motor skills should not be ignored hence proved
Thankyou!!
Creative efforts and finger painting enthusiast – Heena Sahi

Thank you Morpheus Nag for the artwork !!
One reply on “Finger and Fine motor and hand”
Thank you for sharing such easy and useful tips for building fine motor skills. Morpheous your drawings are so cute love them.