Fine Motor 2-Handed Use

Pre-School Readiness Activities - Mod-Severe Levels

Being able to demonstrate 2-handed fine motor skills is needed for pre-school readiness. Using both hands at the same time is also called bilateral integration. Bilateral (two-handed) activities are common and happen throughout the day on any number of self-care tasks and during pre-school activities.

These 2-handed tasks generally require using both hands at the same time but with different movements for even the most basic manual dexterity and manipulation of objects. For example, opening a pencil or crayon case, tying your shoes, opening a bottle, buttoning, zipping, tearing paper, using scissors, or opening a snack package – all activities and tasks that your child will encounter during pre-school.

All children learn at different rates, and no child is expected to be able to enter pre-school will all skills mastered. Being able to use basic fine-motor skills however, are a needed for pre-school readiness. Having difficulty with putting on a jacket, managing their clothing fasteners, or opening their snack packs can come with practice, and the pre-school staff will help when needed, but pre-school aged children are expected to make good attempts and develop their skills over time and with experience.

Being able to use both hands on 2-handed tasks is a skill that is needed for active participation in pre-school activities. For children who are unable to use one arm, or who have a physical disability, working with your service providers for support will help your child learn how to perform tasks using only one hand, making use of compensatory techniques, modifications and adaptive equipment.

In order for your child to master using both hands to work together at the same time, they need to first learn how to do that.

The following list of activities and ideas are some great ways to help your child develop fine motor 2-handed ability.

The exercises, tasks, and activities that follow are geared toward children who have Mod-Severe pre-school readiness concerns. You may also want to try some of the activities listed under Min-Mod readiness which have a different difficulty level.

o Squeeze bottles of washable paints, bottles of water, bottles of soapy bubble solution using both of their hands to squish and squeeze the liquid out of the bottle

o Race your child to see how many blocks they can fit into one of their socks; to make it harder, see how many water balloons they can stuff into a small pillow case (you may want to do this one outside!)

o   Place one hand on a piece of paper and use a crayon or washable marker to trace around their own hand and fingers; they can do for both hands – save in a scrapbook!

o   If you have a scooter board, they can lay on the board and then pull them self across the room by hand-over-hand pulling their way along a rope or rolled up bed sheet

o   Toss and catch a medium sized ball

o   Toss and catch water balloons (partially filled so they do not break easily, but are easier to grasp on to)

Lots More Ideas Follow Below

o   Blow some big bubbles and then have your child “clap” them to pop them using both hands

o   Hold a medium sized ball in both hands and have then spin or rotate the ball around and around, forwards and backwards; you may want to put a sticker or dot on the ball so you and the child can see how fast and evenly they can rotate the ball

o   Take damp to wet wash clothes and have your child “twist” the water out of them, demonstrating as needed. You can have them twist the water into a container to see just how much water that wash cloth was able to hold

o   Thread dry large size rotini pasta onto a pipe cleaner or long plastic straw; you can put some tape at the end to keep the pasta from falling off the end

o   Draw outlines of simple shapes, straight lines, and gentle curves, onto the paper and have your child use Wiki-Stix to place on and follow the lines you have drawn

o   Give your child a variety of large plastic containers with snap on/off lids and have them open them all up; mix them up, and have your child sort and then put all the lids back on the containers.

o   Save several 2-liter plastic bottles with their lids and let your child work on screwing the lids on and off; time them and track their speed progress over time

o   Help hang t-shirts (and shirts that won’t easily fall off a hanger)

o   Cut wide strips of colored paper and let your child attach the ends with tape to make “links.” They can combine the strips, making links as they go to make a long chain of colored links; they can make a crazy necklace, or hang them as decoration around their room.

More Ideas Below Photo

o   Make some cookies by rolling out the dough with a rolling pin and then using cookie cutters to make shapes to bake – Always fun!

o   Play dough play – See Blog here on TheraPlay4Kids.com for great ideas for play dough play!

o   Stretch out and push back together Pop Toobs – You can twist and turn the Toobs into all sorts of shapes and see if your child can untwist and then squish back into its original straight shape

Keep Scrolling for more Ideas!

o   Complete lacing cards with large holes and simple shapes – use TheraTubing of ¼” to ½” to make for easier handling use

o   Self-help fabric activity pads for lacing, buttoning, zipping – these are fun and a great practice tool

o   Use a pot holder loom kit and make pot holders for everybody! They do sell large looms and big chunky loops for small hands

o   Let your child help wash a few dishes (go with plastic for safety), or if they do not want to get their hands in the soap water, see if they will dry them off for you

o   Find some large nuts and bolts (at the hardware) or big plastic nuts and bolts in the toy aisle to combine and take apart

o   Take a small skein of thick yarn and show your child how to wind that yarn into a ball – you can start with a wadded up piece of paper for a pre-formed Styrofoam ball to use as a base to wrap the yarn around – You can get it started and then let them take over – great 2-handed activity!

o   Ask for help in cutting up (use plastic knife) strawberries, bananas, plums, any softer fruit. Don’t worry about them being exact, you are working on the ability to hold with one hand and cut with the other. Ask for help in making some small fruit bowls for a meal, and eat a few pieces in the process

o   If you have a box of 8 to 12 to 16 crayons, have your child take them out of the box one at a time, and then put them all back in with the goal of not breaking them; use chunky ones to start with

o   See Beyond Coloring Blog

o   Practice unzipping a jacket, and when they have that down pat, work on zipping up; Finding clothes with big zipper tabs is a great help. Work on backpack zippers too! Look around for other zippers that they may need to practice on.

o   Show your child how to roll up bath towels. You may start with the towel folded in half or thirds, so they only have to roll it up

o   Ask for help in wrapping a small package, using tape to close up the flaps; Have them help decorate the package by wrapping yarn around the wrapped box and adding any other decorations they can think of

o   What ideas can you come up with? Please don’t forget to share!  

As you can see, 2-handed use happens all the time! Combining learning opportunities with early self-care and self-help tasks is a great way to work on more than one pre-school readiness skill at the same time!

For children who are unable to use one arm, or who have a physical disability, working with your service providers for support will help your child learn how to perform tasks using only one hand, making use of compensatory techniques, modifications and adaptive equipment.

Share any ideas you may have!

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