As you plan your festive season gift
lists, here are some ideas for children
that can help promote fine motor
development.
Moulding and modelling clay
Choose soft play dough for younger
children and modelling clay from five
to six years.
Puzzles
Puzzles require children to manipulate
their fingers and build hand-eye
coordination while teaching them
problem-solving techniques and
patience.
Construction sets and tools
Pick a favourite theme and
encourage children to work with small
objects and use their creativity.
Beading and lacing kits
Kits that feature jewellery-making
or other projects that involve lacing
or threading provide great practice
for little fingers. Letter-shaped beads
provide literacy practice at the same
time.
Homemade art kits
Choose colouring books and a
selection of crayons, coloured
pencils, chalk and washable markers.
Include child-safe scissors and add
non-toxic paints, different sizes of
paint brushes, cotton buds, and
eyedroppers for paint or coloured
water. Don’t forget stamps, glue,
glitter and coloured drawing and
tissue paper.
Sticker books, mosaic and
magnetic games
Different themes and sizes of portable
sticker books and magnetic books or
games make great gifts for children
who take long plane rides or frequent
restaurants.
Lego
While Lego is a great way to get
children to use their hand and finger
muscles while tapping into their
creativity, be careful to buy sets
that are age-appropriate to avoid
frustration.
Gifts that help
peers make when they compare each
other’s work among themselves, and
you can see how a child’s self-esteem
will take a hit.”
Annette Ainsworth is vice
principal of Peak School and says
it’s very important for pre-schools to
emphasise play-based activities such
as clay moulding and modelling,
lacing, threading, buttoning, painting
with brushes and playing with jigsaw
puzzles and construction toys.
“Pre-schools that focus on the
more formal skills in reading and
writing at the expense of spending
time on fine motor skill development
are missing a vital stage of the child’s
development, and this may affect
their success in reading and writing at
a later stage,” she says.
Research shows that art helps
spark and develop fine motor skills,
too. Lindy Moran, owner of Little
Picasso Studio, says she has recently
been getting more referrals from
learning specialists at schools around
Hong Kong to help children between
the ages of three and six years who
are struggling with fine motor skill
development.
“Art is simply the best tool for
small children to develop their fine
motor skills,” says Lindy. “It provides
a relaxed and fun setting for
children to create while they are
using all of the techniques that help
build and strengthen their small
muscles and coordination. With
electronic devices now offered to
babies and toddlers, creative play is
needed now more than ever.”
Another impact of technology
is that the once essential life skill of
cursive writing is quickly becoming
a lost art in schools. When students
start to struggle with printed
handwriting, teachers are turning
to keyboards instead and dropping
cursive instruction altogether. Not
only do children report that they find
keyboarding easier than handwriting,
but they are also more interested in
it. With limited time to teach both
handwriting and keyboarding,
cursive is becoming extinct in many
parts of the world.
“Our world is changing quickly,
and the use of technology in schools
is now an essential part of our
curriculum,” says Annette.
“However, there has to be a balance.
Children still have to develop the
skills they need to be able to write
with a pen and pencil.”
December 2013
53
