Your child has spent the first couple years of his life building his fine motor skills. It’s amazing to think that this initially meant activities as simple as grabbing and reaching, and now he’s developing early writing skills, drawing pictures, scribbling, using scissors, and lacing beads! This involves not just strength of the hand muscles, but also the development of Hand-Eye Coordination.

At 2-3 years old, this improving Hand-Eye Coordination and Small Muscle Movement and Dexterity will help your child really take off with his creative art and early writing endeavors.¹ He will be able to dive into this creative world by building the following abilities and systems: visual-motor skill, visual perception, fine-motor dexterity, kinesthetic sense, and stability. ^2,3 But what are all these abilities and systems, and how do they work together to help your budding artist?

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Visual-motor skill, also known as Hand-Eye Coordination, refers to your child’s ability to use his vision to help his hands perform intended actions, which is important for many fine motor tasks including writing!⁴ Visual perception allows him to make sense of what he sees.³ In addition, your child has been tracking objects with his eyes since birth and using that information to reach for things and learn about the world around him. By developing these visual abilities, he will be able to copy his ABC’s and 123’s as well as tell the difference between various shapes, such as understanding that a circle is not a square.

Fine motor dexterity is the “coordination of muscles, bones, and nerves to produce small, precise movements.”⁵ Fine motor skills enable your child to manipulate objects and carry out activities with his hands and fingers, such as playing with craft dough, threading laces or stringing beads, tearing or crumpling paper, cutting with scissors, and picking up small objects with clothes pins.^3,6 To improve these fine motor skills, he must also develop bilateral coordination (the effective use of both hands working together) and sensory skills (the understanding how things look, sound, smell, feel, and move).^7,8 

Kinesthetic sense allows your child to understand how his arms, hands, and fingers move, feel, and are positioned in space.⁹ That is, where his body is in the world and how it is moving. As he better understands how his body parts move through space, he will be better able to control his muscles, creating more careful and meaningful movements.

Strong postural and shoulder stability are also needed in order to draw, write, and do other focused, fine motor activities. Postural stability is your child’s ability to keep his trunk strong and stable through balance to keep from falling and carry out intended movements.^3,10 Shoulder stability happens when your child holds his shoulder joints steady, allowing his whole arm to be held in various positions while his forearm, hand, and fingers perform a specific action.¹¹ Good postural and shoulder stability helps him hold his hand in a steady position while writing or drawing.¹²

All of these skills are important for your child to be able to explore creative art projects and early writing. Help him create swirls and shapes with his finger paints, imitate writing by making lines and scribbles on paper, tear colored paper and magazine images to make interesting collages, and start using fun art tools, like rolling pins and cookie cutters when playing with craft dough.¹³ Your child is also beginning to use markers and crayons appropriately to “color” in his coloring books now, although he probably still colors outside the lines and even off the page! So go ahead and encourage your child to get his hands and fingers ready to explore and create wonderful projects!

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Play Tips:

Do you want to know how you can support your child’s development of these Small Muscle Movement and Dexterity, Hand-Eye Coordination, and Early Writing skills at this age? It’s easy! Read on for some simple tips to incorporate into your daily play time together.

1. Provide a variety of art materials for your child to explore.¹³ Encourage your child to explore textures and get a feel for different art materials and tools. Explore materials, such as finger paint, chalk, paintbrushes, crayons, collage materials, scissors, and paper. Not only will he see the variety in colors, hues, and textures, he will really get a sense of how they can be used in different ways. Consider starting your child off using wide-grip versions of the materials for easy handling at first, but gradually introduce finer tools as his skills improve. Model and supervise the use of new art materials to ensure their proper use and safety.
2. Encourage postural and shoulder stability building activities.³ Fine motor skills can only develop using the strength and stability of the larger, earlier developing muscles of the trunk, arms, and shoulders. For this reason, it is important for your child to continue his outdoor play. He can strengthen his upper body by hanging from the monkey bars, playing wheelbarrow, and crab walking. To build shoulder strength and control, encourage him to write or draw on a vertical surface, such as a blackboard or easel. If you don’t have a or easel, invest in some washable markers that can be used on a low window or sliding glass door.¹⁴
3. Explore multidimensional art projects. Consider exploring a subject in a variety of art forms. For instance, start off by reading a story book about a bear, then look at real images or videos of different types of bears found in the world. Finally, ask your child to create a bear in a drawing or painting or with craft dough. This technique can be used with many different topics and is a fun way to teach him about subjects he is interested in.

Developmental Milestones:

Has your baby achieved the following Small Muscle Movement and Dexterity for Early Writing, developmental milestones yet? If yes, check off all the skill(s) she has already mastered to date using Playful Bee’s developmental milestones tracker. It’s absolutely FREE and easy to use, just click HERE!

• Holds a pencil in proper writing position.
• Copies straight lines, squares, and circles.

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Sources:

¹Nebraska Department of Education (2006). Nebraska Early Learning Guidelines for Ages Birth to 3. 

²Chung, Adah (2013). Hand Strengthening Exercises for Kids. LiveStrong. Retrieved February 14, 2014, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/117446-handstrengthening-exercises-kids/.

³Handwriting Help for Kids. Occupational Therapy Recommendations. Handwriting Help for Kids. Retrieved February 14, 2014, from http://www.handwritinghelpforkids.com/basics.html.

⁴Pediatric Vision Development Center. Hand-Eye Coordination. Pediatric Vision Development Center. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://www.visiontherapy4kids.com/ContentPage.aspx?id=51.

⁵Mannheim, Jennifer K. (2013). Fine Motor Control. MedlinePlus: National Institute of Health. Retrieved February 14, 2014, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002364.htm.

⁶Therapy Street for Kids. Fine Motor: In-Hand Manipulation. Therapy Street for Kids.Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://www.therapystreetforkids.com/fm-inhandmanip.html.

⁷Early Intervention Support. Fine Motor Skills for Infants and Toddlers. Early Intervention Support. Retrieved February 14, 2014, from http://www.earlyinterventionsupport.com/how-children-develop/fine-motors-skills-infants-toddlers.

⁸Saunders, Dianne (2010). Pre-Writing Skills for Children under Five. Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://www.caot.ca/default.asp?pageID=3711.

⁹Gellens, Suzanne R. (2013). Building Brains. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.

¹⁰Westcott, Sarah L.; Lowes, Linda P.; and Richardson, Pamela K. (1997). Evaluation of Postural Stability in Children: Current Theories and Assessment. Physical Therapy Journal; 77: 629-645. Retrieved February 14, 2014, from http://ptjournal.apta.org/content/77/6/629.full.pdf.

¹¹Royal Children’s Hospital (2005). Shoulder Stability and Control. Occupational Therapy – Kids Health Information. Retrieved February 14, 2014, from http://www.rch.org.au/uploadedFiles/Main/Content/ot/InfoSheet_F.pdf.

¹²School-OT. Fine Motor 101. School-OT. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://www.school-ot.com/FIne%20motor%20101.html.

¹³Maryland State Department of Education (2010). Healthy Beginnings: Supporting Development and Learning from Birth through Three Years of Age.

¹⁴Cooley, Tonya, (2010). Let’s Write on the Door. Therapy Fun Zone. Retrieved February 14, 2014, from http://therapyfunzone.net/blog/2010/06/lets-write-on-the-door/.

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Playful Bee

Education Team at Playful Bee

Playful Bee is an e-Preschool that delivers inquiry-based preschool learning from the classroom to your home. Our preschool curriculum was created by our talented team of rock star teachers. With years of hands-on preschool and Kindergarten teaching experience, they've developed a high-quality preschool experience that is convenient-to-use and easy-to-teach by you, grandparents, or your nanny at home.

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