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Fine motor skills are generally speaking of the dexterity of the hands and fingers. The proper functioning of fine motor skills depends on the correct structure and function of the locomotor system and the nervous system. What are the most common disorders of fine motor skills? What exercises are effective in developing fine motor skills?
What is fine motor skills?
Fine motor skills define a set of all activities that are performed with the help of hands. Fine motor skills are not an inborn trait that a child has after birth. Every person has to educate and perfect fine motor skills. In order to be as effective as possible, the education and improvement process should start as early as possible in life. Initially, the child learns to grasp a toy, then to arrange blocks, hold cutlery, and color until learning to write or tie shoelaces. Fine motor skills are educated through free movement and daily activities, but also during specifically defined and designed games.
Fine motor skills – the most common disorders
There are cases that despite regular hand and finger exercises, there are disturbances in fine motor function. Symptoms that most often occur in the case of fine motor disorders are as follows:
- delay in the development of praxia, i.e. the ability to use everyday objects such as a spoon or fork;
- low exercise in terms of precision of movements. This disorder is usually associated with too little or too little muscle tension;
- incoordination of the movements of the fingers, hands and forearms;
- impaired eye-hand coordination during activities that are performed under eye supervision. In this case, children have problems drawing or making plasticine figures;
- the speed of movements is not adapted to the task at hand;
- the child is reluctant to undertake tasks that require manual skills.
Fine motor skills – basic skills
Activities that lie within fine motor skills are most often stimulated by imitation of other people, perception, gross motor skills, and especially by eye-hand coordination. During the development of fine motor skills, basic skills are developed, including controlled movements of hands and fingers, grasping objects with only one hand, moving a given object in order to perform a specific task, as well as coordinating the movement and work of both hands at the same time. If there are disturbances in fine motor skills, corrective exercises are needed to stimulate development and eliminate the disorders.
Exercises to develop fine motor skills
Specialists indicate many exercises that help children develop fine motor skills. The most frequently mentioned ones include:
- painting large shapes, painting on large sheets of paper or painting straight lines or balls;
- arranging puzzles and blocks;
- cutting out figures, forms for assembly, parts of pictures, as well as cutouts along straight, wavy and broken lines;
- molding from plasticine or modeling clay;
- connecting selected points with lines;
- colored picture books;
- carrying out construction works according to a pattern or according to your own idea;
- kneading plasticine and filling the surfaces of various shapes with it: a circle, a square or a triangle.
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