Fine Motor Early Grasp
Activities for Developing Fine Motor Early Grasp
for Mod-Severe Readiness Levels
The development of a child’s grasp is influenced by their growing interest in objects and desire to hold them. The pincer grasp is an essential grasp to develop as it is the basis for many functional tasks that includes able to manage clothing fasteners and beginning use of tools such as a crayon or pencil.
TheraPlay4Kids.com
Some of the activities you may want to try in developing early fine motor grasp skills include:
Use an Old Glove
Cut the thumb and index finger off of an old glove, or cut off the thumb end and make a hole where the index finger would go through if using a mitten. Have your child use their thumb and index finger to try and:
o pick up items such as small blocks or large beads
o unwrap candies
o pop the little bubbles in bubble wrap
o pick up small pieces of fruit such as raisins or cut up chunks of other kinds of fruit
o pick up craft pom-poms, strips of ribbon or lace
TheraPlay4Kids.com
Finger Food
Fill a shallow bowl with a mix of dried pasta, raisins, dried beans, berries, and so on.
o Ask your child to sort them into a variety of jars and cups using only their thumb and index finger.
o Give your child a variety of small food items, or cut up foods into finger sized snacking size. Use cut up grapes, raisins, apple, carrot, cheese chunks, strawberries, blueberries, small bite sized chunks of ham, turkey, etc.
o If they do not want to eat these items, ask them to help make you a dish!
o Always supervise for choking hazards!
TheraPlay4Kids.com
Scribbling
o Use chunky crayons or chalk on big pieces of paper or a blackboard
o Get your child to scribble on paper with short chunky crayons, or washable markers
o Pick up the chunky or broken pieces of crayons and chalk and move from one container to another using just their thumb and pointer finger
o Using chalk, scribble on a blackboard
o With dry erase markers, scribble on white-boards
o Outside you can have them draw on the sidewalk or driveway with short pieces of chalk
TheraPlay4Kids.com
Play Dough
It’s always fun to hide small toys, buttons, large beads, bottle caps, marbles, and so on, in the play dough and have your child find them and pull them out.
o Have them use their thumb and index finger to squeeze and find the solid items within the playdough.
o Supervise and be aware of choking hazards!
o See blog on TheraPlay4Kids.com for playdough recipe and activities.
o Make small balls with the play dough and flick them to win a goal.
TheraPlay4Kids.com
Pinch & Move Activity
Have your child try to pick up and transfer a variety of items from one container to another using their thumb and pointer finger – you can use:
o foam puzzle pieces
o cotton balls
o craft pom-poms
o bottle caps
o game pieces
o rolled up balls of playdough
o pieces of ribbon and lace
o large thick buttons
o thimbles
o bobbins
o large nuts and bolts
o In addition to these activities you can also try any of the early fine motor grasping activities listed under the Min-Mod readiness level.
Keep Scrolling down for more ideas!
TheraPlay4Kids.com
Lacing and Threading Activities
Encourage lacing and threading by holding the string, yarn, or cord between the thumb and index / pointer finger.
o Try lacing using different sized thicknesses of string, shoelaces, or yarn – start with thick and wide pieces of cord, yarn, or shoestrings for easier grip
o Use lacing cards in different sizes and shapes
o Lace/ thread large sized pasta noodles – Big rotini work great!
o Lace / thread large beads of ½” to 1” or even bigger
o Make a big bead and bobble necklace
o Lace / thread through a variety of different sized buttons
o Make your own lacing cards by poking holes into a section of a cardboard box
TheraPlay4Kids.com
Coin & Button “Bank”
Use the thumb and index / pointer finger to pick up large buttons, checkers, and large coins including “pirate money” and big plastic play money
o Cut a slit in the lid of a plastic container to push the coins and / or buttons through – make the slit wide enough to avoid frustration
o Have a race to see how many they can get into the container in 30 seconds or 1-minute
o Make a game of switching between a button, a coin, a checker, and so on. “Put in a button,” then “Put in a red checker,” and so on
More Ideas Below!
TheraPlay4Kids.com
Clothes Pin Races
Using large wooden or plastic clothes pins try to pinch them open using the thumb and index/pointer finger
o Place clothes pins around the edge of a cardboard box
o Place clothes pins onto a string or piece of yarn placed low enough for your child to reach
o Use a variety of different sized clothes pins (wooden and plastic)
o If you are careful you can stretch the spring a bit by “over-opening” slightly – this makes the clothes pin a little easier to pinch open; go slow as to not break the clothes pin apart
o If putting the pins ON are just too difficult, and causing frustration, you can clip the pins on and have your child pinch them OFF
TheraPlay4Kids.com
Craft Activities
Any age appropriate craft activities are great! Some ideas where use of thumb and index finger is needed include:
o Make a collage using dried pasta, dried rice, big seeds, large sequins, large beads, chunky pieces of lace or ribbon, photo or magazine pictures, shapes made from colored paper, pom-poms, craft feathers, etc
o Big stickers or big colored sticker “dots” to put together to make collage pictures
o Ripping pieces of paper for use in an art project using only their thumb and pointer finger
o Glue and stick some big paper colored discs onto a drawn line or to fill an outline shape
TheraPlay4Kids.com
Pegboards
There seems to be an unending variety of pegboards from teeny tiny too big and clunky!
o If you have pegs and a pegboard or tactile pegboard mat, these are great for practicing pincer grasp and placement skills.
o Sort by color
o Sort by size
o Timed race to fill pegboard or tactile mat
o Use the pre-made pegboards or tactile “rubbery” mats
o Make your own “pegboard” by using Styrofoam where they need to press pegs into the material; use a marker of various colors to draw “circles” around where the holes are for improved ability to seek and find where to put the pegs
o Make holes with a screwdriver into clean cardboard boxes, then have your child push the pegs into the holes (let them help make the holes too if they are able to safely do so); you may have to wiggle the hole bigger to fit some of the larger easier to grip pegs
TheraPlay4Kids.com