fine motor skills

does anyone have any suggestions on how i can help my 5 1/2 yr old with his fine motor skills, he does good, his fingers just are not strong enough, he holds his pencil wierd, kinda looks like if you were to blow on it it fly right out of his hands. i'm useing play-doh, having him help me make cookies, and stuff to work on getting his strength up. does anyone have anymore ideas that might help. thank you so much

sunny

[AndiJ.78]

I think the crawling is a great idea! It can help in so many areas and you are right, what a great bonding experience!

Has this motor-skill issue been examined by a professional? Perhaps an occupational therapist? Using fine motor manipulatives like play-doh and such is a great place to start, perhaps an OT can give you some more ideas as well.

Are you sure his right hand is his dominate hand? I don't know if it happens anymore, but when I was younger my teacher kept trying to make me use my right hand, even though I am a lefty. It used ot be pretty common practice to try and make kids switch, but i am not sure if that is an issue anymore.

Good luck with everything. I really do hope you guys get some answers soon!

Andi

[sunshineysmile]

yes, he is right dominant, and he is starting OT after the christmas break, i was just looking for some ideas to help him a long a little, thank you everyone for the wonderful ideas, and i will definatly try the crawling game, thanks so much.

[AndiJ.78]

Awesome, you may be able to google some fine motor activities and come up with some other ideas. Maybe even breaking out some tools. Have you tried setting up a board with some nuts and bolts and letting him manipulate those? Stringing beads is another great manipulative fine motor thing, or you could use cheerios and some yarn.

Andi

[sunshineysmile]

yep, we have done froot loops, only because they are a little bigger, i'll try the cheerios next,, my dh made him a board to work with, with nuts and bolts and washers and that good stuff, he's coming along. thanks andi

[AndiJ.78]

I feel silly for this just hitting me,lol. I have been sitting here with my 18 month old on my lap playing with this book I recently bought for him from Toy R Us. Anyway, it is a manipulative book with Elmo and other characters from Sesame street and it has activities like zipping up Elmo's coat, brushing Herry Monster's hair, buckling Bert's belt etc. Have you thought about or gotten him some of these type of things. They are real world activities and they are great for that specific type of fine motor work. I think they also have dolls out there, Ernie I think, where you do all of the same type of things.

Okay, I will quite tossing ideas out there. From what you have written you guys are obviously well-informed on this and are doing a great job finding and implementing new activities.

Andi

[shedevil31]

sounds like your doing the right stuff, even finger exercises like open and close fist, maybe put hands on the wall and push as much as he could
pick up little things like a marble(just make sure he dont eat it ..im sure at 5 he knows that though)
Play dough is good he can squeeze... Just stay consistant and keep up the good work...GOOD LUCK

[sunshineysmile]

thanks hun

[greenpixie]

I have been a preschool teacher for 10 years, so I hope I can help you with this one.  I have found that one of the best things is to find things for him to do with clothespins.  You can have him pick up cottonballs with clothespins, or make a color/letter  matching game on a piece of cardboard.  By that I mean, draw different colored squares around the edges of a piece of cardboard.  Use a marker to color the clothespins and he can match the colors.  Also, kitchen tongs will be useful.  Just see what he can find to pick up with them.  Those bead coasters are good. You can also get some golf tees, a large piece of styrofoam, and a plastic hammer.  He can hammer the tees into the styrofoam.  Anything that requires lacing and threading is also good.  Puzzles too.  Just be creative and have fun with it.  Hope some of this helps.

[sunshineysmile]

he's getting better, yes he's in kindergarden, and every day we see an improvement, sometimes the lines are a little wiggly, but they are getting stronger every day.

[shubunkin2974]

is he in school? does he seem to be doing ok with his writing? I have a 6 year old that holds his pencil very strange also but he  seems to write everything fine and his teacher has never said anything.

[sunshineysmile]

AWESOME thanks so much for your help, i really appreciate everyones advice.i will work on those this weekend, thanks again

[Adevotee]

I was online "surfing"...lol...and I saw something that made me think of you...what about lite brite...you know with the little pegs that you put in the black paper and then turn the lights off and turn the lite brite on and it shows a colorful picture...this may be for when he is a little better but I just thought I would tell you...

[babyhopes]

You may have enough ideas already, but I am an ALP (speech therapist) and have worked with a lot of OT's. One main suggestions with writing and penci grasp, is to have your child write/draw on an inclined surface, such as an easle, because it is very difficut to hold the pencil wrong, also it helps with pressure. If children press too hard and fist the writing utensil, this is almost impossible with an upright surface. Hope it helps!

[sunshineysmile]

oh my thanks so much, you know i never thought of lite bright, it so funny,brings back a lot of memories, i will definatly look into one of those.

and the incline is a wonderful idea too, obviously u know. thanks so much, i will look into that also.

thank you all so so so so much.

[cinnimonsugar]

one other thing you might consider is modeling clay instead of play-doh, that was what was suggested for a friend of mines son.  the OT the suggested it said that it is a little harder to manipulate modeling clay than play-doh and so it builds the strength in their hands andfingers.

[michellez]

The crawling may help to strengthen his shoulder muscles so that his whole arm doesn't have to move when he writes.  Other games someone mentioned to me were "Don't break the ice" (milton bradley, I think) Trouble and Cooties.  A hand held hole puncher may also help.  I am going to try the clothes pin idea.