The Power of Parenting

Friday, 30 July 2010

Fine Motor Development: 4 to 5 years

Fine Motor Development means mastering precise and accurate small muscle movements of the fingers and hands in order to reach, grasp and manipulate small objects.
Typical Skills
  • Draws person with features including head, arms, legs and trunk
  • Cuts and pastes using art materials
  • Paints with a large brush on large paper
  • Manipulates clay, playdough
  • Draws lines, simple shapes and a few letters
  • Dresses and undresses with little help
Emerging Skills
  • Carries a cup without spilling what’s in it
  • Cuts on a line or cuts out simple shapes along an outline with scissors
  • Strings small beads to make a necklace
  • Prints recognizable numbers, letters and words, including her own name
Comfort, Play & Teach™
 Comfort, Play & Teach™

Comfort
If you do this:
Your Preschooler will:

 
  • Give your child sensory materials to play with like sand or water along with different sized containers, sieves and utensils
  • Make playdough for your child, scented with spices (vanilla, mint) and food colouring
  • Enjoy the pleasurable feelings of the materials while learning about volume
  • Learn about the sense of smell and how colours are made while manipulating the dough to make shapes
Play
If you do this:
Your Preschooler will:

 
  • Make pencils, crayons and chalk available often
  • Offer a variety of arts and crafts materials for your child to make anything she wishes, e.g., boxes, glue, ribbons, tubes, yarn, scissors, tape, etc.
  • Get used to colouring, drawing pictures or exploring letters and numbers
  • Use her imagination and fine motor skills to make her own creations
Teach
If you do this:
Your Preschooler will:

 
  • Play board games that involve counting and moving player pieces, e.g., Snakes and Ladders
  • Print your child’s name using dots for each letter that he has to connect
  • Learn the concept of counting forward and backwards in order to win a game
  • Begin to recognize and copy shapes of letters