Unusual Fine Motor Tips
1: Wrist Position
Searching for fine motor activities is one of the most common reasons people stumble across my site. Perhaps you are one of them!
As a result, my scissor cutting pages and the activities to work on hand and finger skills are very popular.
However, there are other aspects to fine motor skill development that are less well known, so I plan to highlight a few of these aspects over the coming months in my newsletters.
The first Unusual Fine Motor Tip is to look at your child’s wrist position. Does your child have a hooked/bent wrist while trying to draw/cut/write?
And if so, why is this important?
To give you an idea of the importance of wrist position, try this yourself…
First hook your wrist like this and try to move your fingers around...
Now hold your wrist like this and try to move your fingers...
There are muscles in your forearm, with tendons running to your fingers, which cause your fingers to bend and straighten. When you hold your wrist in a slightly extended position, the muscles operating the fingers can pull the tendons (and therefore the finger bones) more easily, which results in better control of the fingers for handwriting.
So, what to do if your child works with a hooked wrist?
I have two pages on my site that you may find helpful:
Why Is Wrist Extension Important?
This page gives you some more info and pics on how wrist position can affect a child’s fine motor skills.
Wrist Exercises for Kids
This page has lots of photographed activity ideas that you can use to help your child develop a more functional wrist position.
Thanks for reading and for signing up for my newsletters! Please feel free to share the newsletter and pages with anyone you think will benefit from the information.
Be blessed as you help the children in your life!
Tracey
Living Life Abundantly! (John 10:10)
