Comb your hair, send a kiss with your hand, put a pinch of salt on the salad. The fine motor skills allows us to do these little things and many more. The failure to develop this type of movements, which even in their smallness are fundamental for a regular and complete evolution of the human being, and the impossibility of performing them correctly can depend on several factors. Let’s first see what we talk about when discussing fine motor skills and how to help children overcome its problems. FINE MOTOR SKILLS: WHAT IT IS AND HOW TO STIMULATE IT IN CHILDREN

What is fine motor skills?

This expression refers to movements that mainly concern the hands and facial expressions. Fine motor skills relate to many involuntary daily actions. These are movements that have motor and coordination implications, with aspects concerning hand-eye coordination, the ability to make small constructions and to put several actions in the right order. Each of them is part of what, more generally, is called praxia, that is, the ability to perform actions related to daily life correctly and without particular effort. These are complex mechanisms, which add up little by little until they consolidate around 6 or 7 years, and are part of our fundamental motor baggage. Living without praxic skills would mean needing continuous assistance forever with respect to activities considered very simple, such as tying your shoes or holding a cup of coffee in your hand.

Why stimulate fine motor skills in children?

Dyspraxia is defined as the inability to perform coordinated movements in time and space, movements of a daily nature, in the absence of mental deficits or disorders of various kinds, from neuromotor to neurosensory. Fine motor skills are a part of praxia, and stimulating it guarantees some elements necessary for development.

• The acquisition of autonomy: growing also involves learning to do things on your own. From holding a fork to buttoning your pants after going to the bathroom, every gesture linked to fine motor skills has an indispensable purpose.
• Taking responsibility: the child who starts doing things alone feels important and wants to continue in that direction. It is one of the main aspects of maturation, of “growing up”.
• A simpler life, for parents and for the child. Being able to delegate small tasks to a child, or his own care (for the easier part) gives satisfaction to both parties.

How to stimulate it in children?

The best way to stimulate the development and improvement of fine motor skills in children is certainly through games. Play is considered one of the best learning methods ever, so much so that it has been extended to adults in various fields, ranging from team building to actual learning. There are many types, with ludo-didactic purposes, and each one helps a different type of movement. Among these, we find:

• Screw . Put a life in its seat, without tilting it and avoiding to jam it, and then screw it, using the fingers and the palm to hold it still and the wrist to rotate it. The effort required involves coordination between multiple movements. Choose the screw and screwdriver block from our catalog : it is based on learning the screwing gesture and on the recognition of colors.

• Thread . It requires great visual-motor coordination: the child must “take aim”, hold the thread between two fingers and identify the best technique to allow the passage to the other side. You could buy fabric laces , which thanks to the plastic tips make the child’s task easier, allowing him to slip them into supports such as cardboard and wood.

• Recognize through touch . Distinguishing the shape of an object without being able to see it requires the ability to create mental images through touch, a fundamental praxic function for carrying out complex activities that we take for granted, such as moving in the dark using objects as references. Discover the bag that contains the geometric solids and challenge your child to guess the name of the ones he will fish, without looking.

• Fit and stack objects . It is an operation that combines visual and constructive skills. It is necessary to recognize the dimensions of the pieces, determine their logical order and place them on top of each other in the correct position. For this, our pastel colored stackings are perfect for making your child a budding builder.

• Driving a pawn along a track . It requires great eye-hand and hand-hand coordination, measurement of force and patience. Three of our most suitable products for this purpose are called coordination tables . By guiding the tokens along the different paths, the child will be encouraged to use both hands, keeping his attention high so as not to leave the track.

These are only a small part of the games with which you can test your children’s fine motor skills. Find out which type is best suited to the case you are following and let us know how we can help you!

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