Fine Motor and Hand Strength Skills

{photo by Mary Knudson}

Do you have a child who has a hard time with handwriting? Today we offer some activities to improve hand strength and fine motor skills. There are so many ways to “work on handwriting” without working on handwriting! Many of these tips can work for a child of any age, not just those new to writing:

1. If you have a kindergarten student, you know that this year we are using a new kinder handwriting program, which has been an amazing addition to the curriculum. Mrs. Knudson, our Track A Kinder teacher, highly encourages any fine motor activities that use the “go fingers” (thumb, index and middle finger working together). Examples include:

• cutting
• coloring
• using tongs (here's a link to a website with 50 fun ways to play with tongs)
• poking holes in paper (or try styrofoam) with a golf tee

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These activities (and more) are included in the Pencil Gymnastics Kit, available to purchase from The Handwriting Clinic if you desire. Mrs. Knudson also recommends checking Pinterest for lots more fine motor and hand strength ideas!

2. Joy Erb, track B parent of kindergarden student Cameron, says they have been doing:

• finger exercises
• fingertip pushups
• playing jacks (or spinning them)
• spinning tops
• playing with wiki sticks to form alphabet shapes
• playing with legos

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3. And Robin Lee, a track B parent, has a super list of hand strength activities she’s done with her two kids, including her 11 year old:

• make individual pizza dough that kids can knead and flatten and make their own pizza for lunch
• make bread for them to knead
• roll out pie dough with a rolling pin
• make silly putty from scratch to play with
• all things play-doh
• take a small tennis ball, draw “eyes” on it, cut a slice in the ball for the mouth, when you squeeze the “cheeks” the mouth opens up to eat marbles or M&M's…or whatever

• rope climbing
• rock walls
• monkey bars
• crawling on all fours with the hands flat to the ground
• the “Itsy Bitsy Spider”
• handstands/headstands/wheelbarrow races
• the game Operation
• squeezing clothes pins
• unwrapping Hershey's Kisses
• flarp noises in the container
• playing marbles

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Thank you to everyone who contributed these great ideas for developing hand strength and fine motor skills. Get those hands and fingers moving, and your kids will be improving their handwriting without even knowing it! 

Do you work on fine motor or hand strength skills at home? Do you have any other activities to contribute to this list? Post them in the comments below and share what’s working for your kids.