Developing the correct pencil grip is important for your child’s development. To establish the correct pencil grip children need to exercise their fine motor muscles before trying to learn the correct pencil grip.
Working on dexterity and strength first can eliminate the development of an inappropriate pencil grasp.
Within our curriculum we adapt the following fine motor activities that involve the use of manipulation that will support young children’s fine motor development, and will help to build the strength and dexterity necessary to hold a pencil appropriately.
Fine Motor Activities that strengthen hand muscles:
- Molding and rolling play dough into balls – Using pegs or toothpicks to make designs inplay dough.
- Cutting play dough with plastic cutters
- Tearing newspaper into strips and then crumpling them into balls.
- Scrunching up 1 sheet of newspaper in one hand. This is a super strength builder.
- Using spraybottles
- Picking up objects using tweezers or tongs
- Threading
- Using eye droppers with coloured water for art and craft
- Sticking and unsticking stickers to make a collage.
- Scissor Activities
- And drawing with a variety of sized pencils and crayons
