What are Fine Motor Skills?
By LAURIN BRAINARD Updated Jan. 25, 2024
Fine motor skills involve our ability to make movements as we use the small muscles in our hands. When we use a pencil, scissors, manipulate play dough, or build a block tower, we are utilizing our fine motor skills. When we press two blocks together, we are utilizing our hand strength to squeeze the blocks together. We also use hand control as we properly line up the blocks for success. Both hand control and strength work together as we develop our fine motor skills. We use these skills every day throughout our daily tasks such as brushing hair or turning a doorknob.
Interested in downloading some fine motor activities that you can print and use right away? Click on the image or button below to check them out in my TpT shop!
Why are fine motor skills important?
Fine motor skills help our little ones in so many ways, even beyond building strong hand muscles. When strong fine motor skills are developed, it helps to:
- foster independence
- build confidence
- improve hand-eye coordination
- increase hand and finger strength
- develop strong handwriting abilities
In order for our little ones to be successful when handwriting in school, we need to give them ample time to practice and mature their fine motor skills. So, how can we further this fine motor development? You can do this through a variety of activities that build strength and control in your child’s hands!
10 Activities to Build Fine Motor Skills
- Roll, squeeze, and press play dough
- String beads onto a necklace
- Cut on a line with scissors
- Trace shapes using a crayon
- Use a hole punch to increase hand strength
- Carefully use a dot marker to dot inside a circle
- Lacing activities
- Color a coloring page
- Use tweezers to pick up small items
- Scoop flour and sugar using a spoon
Looking for more activities to build fine motor skills? You won’t want to miss our season specific blog posts all about Fall Fine Motor Activities and Spring Fine Motor Activities.
Seasonal Fine Motor Activities
If you are looking for fine motor activities to help you over the next couple months, then check out my Seasonal Fine Motor Activities! This pack is filled with activities for prewriting, hand strength, hand and finger control, beading, scissor skills, tracing, and more! All you have to do is print and prepare the materials and you can use them again and again!
Free Fine Motor Activities For You!
One of our favorite activities for working on fine motor skills is to play with and manipulate play dough! I created a book of playdough mats that you can use to work on colors with your little ones. Just sign up here for your free activity and I will email it right over to you:
Looking to learn about other activities you can do with your little ones? Check out these blog posts:
How to Plan Toddler Activities
This post may contain Amazon affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase through one of my affiliate links, which helps to support The Primary Brain blog. As always, I only recommend products that I love and all ideas shared are my own.
Written on January 25th, 2024 by Laurin Brainard