Early gross motor skills allow babies to do things like move around on their belly, crawl and walk. The fine motor system is comprised of the muscles which control the limbs, hands and feet (sometimes called distal muscles). Motor skills also develop from the head downwards to the toes, meaning that babies learn to use their hands and fingers before they learn to use their feet and toes. The larger muscles of the fine motor system typically develop prior to the small ones, for example a baby will learn to make coordinated movements involving the entire hand and wrist (reaching out to grab something), before they begin moving their fingers in a coordinated manner (e.g. They begin holding objects using their palm (palmar grasps) before they learn to grasp thing with just their fingers (pincer grasps). What do children use fine motor skills for?įine motor skills enable effective use of the hand and children rely on fine motors skills to care for themselves, to perform tasks at school and day to day chores like cooking and washing the car. Anything children do with their hands relies on the fine motor muscles and skills.

Writing and drawingįine motor skills allow children to write, draw and read (because they allow children to turn the pages of books), important skills without which children will struggle to achieve at school.Īt school children spend up to 60% of their day performing tasks that involve the use off their fine motor skills. Until they have developed their fine motors skills, children will find it difficult to learn in other educational areas like mathematics, because this type of learning also requires them to be able to write. #Separation studio 4 $380 freeĬhildren must develop the ability to write easily using tripod grasp, without concentrating on how to form the letters, so that they can free up their minds to focus on the content of what they are writing (e.g. To think about the maths equation they are writing down, rather than how to write the numbers and symbols).Ĭhildren who struggle to use the small muscles in their fingers may be reluctant to engage in tasks like cutting or writing, because they get frustrated, tired or fear failure. The content of a child’s work suffers when they have difficulty writing, and improving writing ability can improve content. For example, increasing writing speed helped children keep up with the volume of written work at school and improving legibility helps others focus on the content of writing (rather than what it looks like).