Building Fine Motor Skills & Co-ordination

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Fine motor skills and coordination are essential in the modern world, where your child will need all the tools you give them for a successful career and fulfilling life.

These crucial aspects of a child’s physical development enable them to perform everyday tasks with precision and control. They also contribute to a healthy physical and mental profile as adults.

Encouraging activities that enhance these abilities can lead to better hand-eye coordination, improved agility, and greater independence in performing complex tasks. This piece will explore key strategies and activities for building fine motor skills and coordination.

What are Fine Motor Skills and Coordination

Fine motor skills refer to precise movements made by the muscles in the hands, fingers, and wrists. Writing, cutting with scissors, brushing teeth, and tying shoes all require these skills. Many of the most coveted career paths, like surgery or dentistry, require these skills, and developing them early can be of great benefit.

Coordination is the process of using different senses together to complete tasks. Most tasks use hand-eye coordination, but cross-body and bilateral coordination are vital for sports and recreation. Any technical career path, like mechanical engineering or flying, requires coordination skills.

fine motor skills and coordination

Fine Motor Skills Activities

When developing fine motor skills necessary to cope with the demands of kindergarten, we look at how to develop the smaller muscles in our hands and fingers. This is done through activities such as:

  • Playing with play dough
  • Creating pasta necklaces
  • Tearing paper
  • Using scissors
  • Using glue to stick paper or other objects 
  • Building puzzles
  • Playing with food and feeding themselves
  • Colouring in
  • Drawing and painting
  • Playing with sand or water
  • Building with blocks or lego
  • Learning to brush their teeth

Coordination Activities

Additionally skills like coordination are also essential when starting kindergarten. Parents can assist their children in developing their coordination by:

  • Practising balancing on one foot
  • Throwing and catching a ball
  • Running 
  • Jumping
  • Walking backwards
  • Playing tug of war
  • Jumping on a trampoline or jumping castle
  • Swimming
  • Playing sports like football or tennis
  • Learning to ride a bicycle or tricycle
  • Learning to play a musical instrument

It is important that preschoolers develop their coordination and fine motor skills as these are essential for their development. They help with various daily activities in both the classroom and on the playground. 

By creating activities that get children to use their fingers and their hands, you’ll be assisting them in developing their fine motor skills.  These skills will build the foundation for writing, being able to pick up and manipulate books, tie shoelaces and do various art activities. 

By developing coordination, children will show more confidence in walking, running, climbing and will have more fun on the playground. This is important for their self-confidence, and for almost all activities they’ll need to do as an adult. 

When should I expect my child to develop fine motor skills and coordination?

Your child’s fine motor and coordination skills will develop throughout childhood, with every child hitting milestones at different rates. 

Fine Motor Skills Timeline

  • 0-3 months: Limited fine motor control, grasping reflex (automatically grabbing objects placed in their hands).
  • 3-6 months: Starts to swipe at objects, brings hands to mouth, and holds objects with both hands.
  • 6-9 months: Grasps objects using the whole hand can transfer objects from one hand to another.
  • 9-12 months: Develops a pincer grasp (thumb and index finger), picks up small objects like cereal, and starts to point at things.
  • 12-18 months: Begins to scribble with a crayon, turn pages in a book, and stack blocks.
  • 18-24 months: Can use a spoon, attempts to undress, and begins to build simple block towers.
  • 3 years: Can draw circles, manipulate playdough, use scissors to snip paper, and build towers of 6-8 blocks.
  • 4 years: Improves cutting skills, dresses and undresses independently, and draws basic shapes or stick figures.
  • 5 years: Can copy letters, use a fork and knife, tie shoelaces, and build more complex structures.
  • 6-7 years: Refined pincer grasp, can write legibly, button clothes, and manage more intricate tasks like cutting out complex shapes.
  • 8+ years: Fine motor skills become more advanced, allowing for activities like playing musical instruments, typing on a keyboard, or drawing detailed pictures.

Coordination Development Timeline:

  • 0-3 months: Developing head and neck control, limited gross motor coordination.
  • 6-9 months: Rolling over, sitting up, and starting to crawl, developing gross motor coordination between arms and legs.
  • 9-12 months: Begins to pull to stand and may start walking with support.
  • 12-18 months: Walking independently, starting to run, and improving balance.
  • 18-24 months: Kicking a ball, beginning to climb, and showing better coordination with hands and feet.
  • 3 years: Your child should be running with more coordination, jumping with two feet, and catching a ball using arms and body.
  • 4 years: Can hop on one foot, throw a ball with more control, and balance on one foot for a few seconds.
  • 5 years: Your child will be mastering skills like skipping, riding a bike with training wheels, and balancing on one foot for a more extended period.
  • 6-7 years: Further refinement of coordination, participating in sports, dancing, and activities requiring gross and fine motor skills.
  • 8+ years: Coordination improves with more complex physical activities like gymnastics, soccer, or swimming.

How Can BrightSparkz Help?

Not sure where to start? BrightSparkz’s Little Sparkz™ is a fantastic way to introduce the basics of fine motor skills and coordination, as well as some other important skills your child will need in addition, such as memory. 

During each lesson, your child will have the opportunity to strengthen their pencil grip, practice colouring in, using a paintbrush, using glue to stick objects, handling paper and other materials in art activities, as well as learning to cut. Here’s what a happy Mom had to say about Little Sparkz™:

“In just 3 sessions they went from not being able to cut with scissors at all, to being able to cut out small objects. They also quickly learnt the difference between big and small letters in writing their names. 

I think all preschool kids would benefit from this program. Big schools seem to expect so much from kids at Kindergarten level and the leap is just too big for most kids. This program really seems to bridge that gap!”

Based on an article written by Jade Hales, ECD student and BrightSparkz Blog Writer. A version of this article first appeared on brightsparkz.co.za.