Fine Motor Skills

When babies are born, their brain is not developed enough to control this type of movement. This happens with time, as your baby grows.

Fine Motor skills are simply actions that involve your child using his smaller muscles, such as the ones found in his hands and fingers, to manipulate objects of different shapes and sizes.

By holding a small object between his finger and thumb, your child is using his fine motor skills. But it is not only limited to fingers. By using his mouth to taste different foods, your child is also using his fine motor skills.

When babies are born, their brain is not developed enough to control this type of movement. This happens with time, as your baby grows.

Typically, development starts in the head, and then gradually advances down to the rest of the muscles in the body.

This means that babies gain control of their face, mouth, lips, and tongue first, followed by the rest of their body muscles in time.

Fine Motor skills usually start to develop as your child’s whole body gains stability and mobility as well as with his cognitive and social development. They are a critical part of his development as he needs to learn to use his hands competently to be able to manipulate objects and to acquire self-help skills such as feeding and dressing.

If you notice your child trying to accomplish something on his own, encourage him with positive words of reinforcement and show him different ways of achieving his objective without completing the task for him.

At this age, children are developing fine motor control; they’re more able to move their fingers independently, using them in more complex tasks such as holding eating utensils like an adult, cutting with child safe scissors and making more complex and precise drawings. He is now building on what he learnt in his first year, however you will notice him becoming more independent in his actions and attempt more tasks and activities on his own. Activities that can help in your 2 year old’s Fine Motor skill development:

• Encourage him to stack a tower of four or more blocks
• Place small foods such as peas or corn in a plate and let your child use a baby fork to eat them which will help him master hand eye coordination
• Sing a nursery rhyme as you help him wash his hands
• Involve him in setting the table for dinner (placing his own plate and baby cutlery on the table)
• Show him how to fold a large napkin and encourage him to imitate your actions
• Put down playdough of different colors on the table for him to create shapes such as balls and snakes