Gotcha! Your Baby’s Working Her Fine Motor Muscles

Gotcha! Your Baby’s Working Her Fine Motor Muscles


Right from the start, you’ll see your baby moving his hands and fingers. There won’t be much direction to the movement in his earliest days, but he’ll start to experiment with opening and closing his hands and reaching, grasping, and releasing.1 These actions are known as Small Muscle Movement and Dexterity, or fine motor skills, which include any skills using the small muscles in the hands.1 Right from the start, your newborn will start using these skills, bringing his hands to his mouth for comfort and exploration, grabbing and shaking toys, and batting at objects of interest.

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Because these skills begin to develop immediately, you can help your 0-3 month old baby right from the start by helping him explore his world with his hands and fingers. While he’s a newborn, place one of your fingers in the palm of his hand, and you’ll watch him wrap his fingers around it. This automatic hand-grasp reflex occurs when he is either awake and alert or during light sleep. By 3 months, his hand-grasp will change from an involuntary reflex to purposeful grasping and holding actions, letting him use his hands in meaningful ways to explore new objects and toys during play.2 So, practice finger grasping with your baby to help strengthen the muscles in his hands and better prepare him for future activities. This exercise also teaches him how to “release” as a counter to “grasping,” another important skill.

Hand motions aren’t the only ways for infants to practice Small Muscle Movement and Dexterity. This has to do with how their bodies develop physically, which happens in a rather predictable pattern. They typically develop from the head down to the toes (cephalo-caudal) and from the innermost parts of their bodies to the outermost parts (proximal-distal).3 Because of this, newborn babies just aren’t ready to write or do more sophisticated hand movements. Instead, at this age, they can most often be seen moving their arms, neck, shoulders, and legs. The development of these large muscles lets your baby prepare his smaller muscle groups.

In addition to encouraging your baby to use his large muscles, you can further support his fine motor development by offering him a variety of stimulating toys and objects, such as rattles, stuffed animals, lovey blankets, or wooden keys, to keep him reaching, grasping, releasing, and batting.1 These behaviors come before and help your baby prepare for more advanced fine motor activities that will develop shortly, such as smoothly moving objects from hand to hand or using the pincer grasp (i.e. picking up objects with thumb and forefinger).

When looking for mobiles or other hanging toys to offer to your baby to bat at and watch, take care that you select toys that are strong enough to handle some good whacks and pulls! Although he will miss most of the time at this age, you want to be sure that the hanging toy or mobile won’t fall if he gets his hands on it. Also, be sure to look for mobiles, mirrors, and toys that are appropriately sized and shaped for your baby to easily grasp and play with. And remember to try not to keep everything out of reach! It’s good for your baby to sometimes catch what he’s grabbing for in order to build his confidence and to keep him engaged and motivated to continue playing.

The big picture to focus on is building a foundation that your baby can use to strengthen his fine motor skills. His actual hand and finger use will be a little clumsy at first, but as long as you see him visually tracking (i.e. following objects with his eyes), beginning to control his head movements, developing his shoulder muscles, and working on hip and trunk stability, you are on the right track in supporting his fine motor skills!3

Play Tips:

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

  1. Provide clean and safe toys for your baby to hold and mouth. Your baby is interested in experiencing everything he can get his hands on at this point. Encourage him to learn like a scientist by offering a variety of toys he can explore with his different senses.
  2. Create safe environments for your baby to discover new objects. Clear the floor and allow him to explore freely with several colorful toys or child-safe objects within reach, or just out of reach. While your baby may not be too mobile at this age, he will gradually build the motor skills to take advantage of his inviting play land.
  3. Support finger-grasping play time throughout your day together. Allow your baby to practice grasping and holding onto your fingers during your daily routine, including his frequent feedings and cuddle time. Not only will this exercise help develop his fine motor muscles, but he will also become aware that he can use his hand and fingers to carry out purposeful actions, providing him with a way to self-soothe and control his random movements.2
  4. Encourage your baby to reach and bat at interesting toys and objects. Hang lightweight rattles and soft, brightly patterned toys that make noises on his crib, car seat handle, or bouncy chair. These noisemakers will delight his sense of hearing and stimulate his curiosity.
  5. Make time for tummy time!4 Tummy time helps build the upper neck and back muscles that support fine motor muscles and skills, so encourage the development of these muscles by doing tummy time daily. If your baby does not take to using the floor, modify the exercise by placing him on your chest so that he may comfortably raise his head to look up at you.

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Developmental Milestones:

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

  • Opens and closes hands.
  • Brings hands together and to mouth.
  • Reaches, hits and grabs dangling objects (i.e. batting).
  • Holds and shakes objects (to hear different sounds).

Sources:

1Washington State Department of Early Learning (2012). Washington State Early Learning and Development Guidelines: Birth through 3rd Grade.

2Nugent, Kevin, and Morell, Abelardo (2011). Your Baby is Speaking to You. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

3Fingergym. Fine Motor Development and Early School PerformanceFingergym: Fine Motor Skills School Readiness Program. Retrieved January 23, 2014, from http://www.fingergym.info/downloads/Finemotordevpp1-4.pdf.

4Maryland State Department of Education (2010). Healthy Beginnings: Supporting Development and Learning from Birth through Three Years of Age.

 

 

Playful Bee

Education Team at Playful Bee
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