Fine motor activities at home

Emily Coons, COTA/L

Working on fine motor activities at home is a great way to boost the things we’re learning and working on in the clinic at Ability Innovations. Here are some great suggestions of practical things you can work on at home to strengthen the upper body and help those fine motor sills!

Summer is my favorite season! I remember when I was a kid and I spent my days outside playing, riding my bike, roller skating, jumping on the trampoline, and making up games to play. As I got older and had my own kids, started working with kids in the school district, and at Ability Innovations doing occupational therapy, I started to notice that more and more kids including mine, were playing video games, switches, or computer games.

Don’t get me wrong, video games offer great skills, but they are not giving our kids the opportunity to increase their fine motor skills. Play is such BIG part of increasing fine motor skills with our kids. To increase fine motor skills, kids need to have a strong upper body, and play is a fantastic way for them to do that. Below is a list of fun, free, and simple activities that can easily be implemented at home.

Upper Body Strengthening Activities for Kids:

• Animal walks-example, crab walks, bear walk, wheel barrel races.

• Wall or chair push ups

• Climbing a rock wall

• Crossing the monkey bars

• Playing on a scooter board

• Raking leaves

• Carrying a laundry basket

• Vacuuming

• Playing tug of war

Fine Motor Activities for Kids at Home:

• Playing with play-doh

• Cutting activities

• Building with legos

• Connecting beads

• Mr. Potato head

• Geo board with rubber bands

• Pop tube

• Bubble wrap

• Tearing paper to make a picture

• Playing with water guns

Benefits of Working on Fine Motor Activities at Home:

If your child is already receiving services at Ability Innovations there are likely goals that you’re trying to help your child achieve. Working on goals at home is a great way to help them progress towards those skills faster than what can be done for 45 minutes in the clinic one time per week. Frequency, intensity, and duration are three concepts to keep in mind when trying to teach new skills to a child. Working on their goals through these fun play activities is how children learn best and the home is the perfect environment for that to happen!

If you have children who aren’t part of our clinic, working on fine motor skills at home with your children is still an excellent thing to do! Hopefully these activities can give you some fun play ideas to help boost those fine motor skills and build up some good upper body strength!