Fine motor skills are the collective skills and activities that involve using the upper limbs, hands and fingers. That is, fine motor skills are those skills that require the small muscles of the hand to work together to perform precise and refined movements.
When do Fine Motor Skills develop?
Fine motor skills typically develop in a reasonably consistent and predictable pattern in the early years of childhood (from birth through to mid primary school). The process begins in infancy when a 2- to 3-month-old baby first bats at a toy, then progresses to grasping, releasing, and transferring objects between their hands. They then progress to using fingers to manipulate and explore things, stack blocks, self-feed, and dress, and as time goes by, during the early childhood years, use ‘school tools’ such as scissors, markers, crayons, pencils, and glue.
By the time a child enters Grade 1, there are a number of fine motor skills that they generally demonstrate in a spontaneous and well-integrated manner. Depending on the child’s previous experience and exposure to different activities, the quality of these skills varies.
However, with age, ongoing experience, and practice, the rate and quality of each child’s fine motor skills continues to develop throughout childhood. However, none of these fine motor skills can develop smoothly without the concurrent development of gross motor (large muscle) skills. In fact, typically, development proceeds in a cephalo–caudal (head to toe) and proximal–distal (moving from the body parts closest to the trunk to those furthest away) pattern. That is why it is important to include things like ‘tummy time’ for infants, to encourage development of their trunk, shoulder, and hip musculature. In simple terms, this means that development of stable shoulders and upper arms provides a solid base for the development of skills such as self-feeding and using scissors and writing tools. Likewise, without well-developed hip and trunk musculature, sitting upright in a chair becomes quite challenging.
Early developmental skills and milestones work together to provide a solid foundation for the more integrated motor skills required in upper grades. These higher-level skills include being able to write fluently and focus on writing content (such as conveying information, thoughts, and ideas) rather than on the mechanics of writing, which involves pencil grasp,
letter formation, spacing, and sizing.
Occupational Therapists assess and treat the following fine motor problems:
- determination of hand dominance
- pencil grip
- hand writing – letter formation and sizing and spacing of words, readability and speed
- pencil control for writing and drawing
- hand/finger strength and stability
- postural shoulder stability
- finger/hand speed and dexterity
- fine motor precision
- wrist/forearm strength and control
- tool usage – scissors, tweezers, knife, spoon and fork
- buttons, zippers, tying shoe laces
What to look for in your child:
- no interest in or avoidance of fine motor skills
- awkward or weak pencil grasp
- when drawing or writing lines are not well defined
- poor colouring and tracing skills
- poor scissor use and control
- weak grasp and release
- difficulties holding objects or turning door knobs
- difficulties manipulating tools such as knife, fork, spoon, tweezers
- difficulties with letter formation, writing on the line and sizing and spacing of words
- poor readability and slow handwriting
- frequently switching hands
- difficulties with tying shoe laces, buttoning and zippers