5 fine motor skills activities for babies and toddlers

Improving fine motor skills at any age is one of the top priorities for educators. The sooner these kinds of skills will be developed, the better toddlers can do things like self-care and other everyday tasks on their own. Children will become more independent and confident. Moreover, psychologists say that there's a link between developed motor skills and speech progress. In this post, I want to share our favourite games for building up fine motor skills at an early age.

1. Ribbon tugging lids.

My baby started this activity at 6 months and at 12 months he was still interested. 

Cut small slots in the plastic lid and put some ribbons through them. Let your child tug the ribbons out of the lid. Later, I used some balloons and a multicooker steamer. 

This game was so frequently used that I was sick and tired of threading ribbons. I decided to remake the toy and it looked like this.

I poked some holes in the empty plastic bottle and tied both ends so they won't slip out.

2. Twisting box.

Another fun activity that can be used in different variations. I used some plastic bottles from diary products. Cut the necks off the bottles with a strong knife. Cut the holes in the box, they should be slightly less in size than the bottle caps. Push the caps through the box from the inside to the outside and fix the necks with a hot glue gun. 

 It's convenient for a child to hold the box and twist and untwist the bottle caps.

3. Buttons into playdough.

It's a very easy and almost zero preparation activity. Select the biggest buttons you have and let a child place them into playdoh.  Any other things like big beads, stones, caps, and coins will go as well.  Always supervise your kid when he is playing with these objects.

4. Aluminium foil surprise packages.

This game is really engaging for toddlers. Wrap a few toys in the foil,  5-6 surprise packages will be enough. Let your child unwrap them one by one and be surprised by his discovery. 

5. Feeding games.

Feeding somebody has been a long-term interest of my son. The first game was at 18 months. I made a drawing of a boy on the box and cut out a hole for his mouth. Later we started feeding favourite characters with plastic food or products made from air dry plasticine. Instead of a play food set, kids can use pompoms, buttons, plastic caps etc.

Read more articles about fine motor skills development on our blog.