Fine motor skills combine the use of eyes and hands working together. They also serve to integrate sub-skills such as control of body posture and eye muscles, along with muscles of the hands and fingers working together. These skills are essential for self-care activities, such as dressing and success in school for activities such as reading and handwriting. They are also essential for independence in
Direct links exist between postural control and fine motor skills due to neuromotor pathways that activate when heavy work is used. The links include attention and control of movement for the muscles that move the eyes (i.e. reading) and those that move the hands (i.e. writing or keyboarding). Postural control is an essential ingredient needed for successful eye hand coordination skills. When the
The Visual Component The ability to use vision to guide the sequencing of motor output is a defining point in the development of fine motor competency. Acquisition of this skill allows for use of tools for self care, including utensils as well as grooming aids such as combs for hair care and razors for shaving. A growing child will also need to learn to
The Motor Component combines visual guidance with hand function skills Fine motor skills develop throughout infancy and continue to develop through the teen years. Initial developmental skills with hand function are directed toward success with: simple grasp patterns the ability to separate fingers for object manipulation the ability to use both hands together During the preschool years, grasp patterns mature to include recruiting vision
In part, because the fingers are situated away from the center of the body, and they require more brain power to access, coordinated improvement of finger patterns are among the latest to develop during childhood. Infants are born with grasp pattern reflexes that allow them to hold objects early in development. However, integrated patterns of touch sensations followed by motor expression begin to take
Using food crafts to help develop precision in fine motor skills The skills needed to coordinate small muscles of the body, such as the muscles of the fingers, eyes, and ears take the longest time to mature. Synchronization of these smallest muscles requires sustained attention, along with the ability to remember little details about the actions of these muscles. The ability to pull together
(Try dressing, eating, or washing up without them) Most of the children I have treated over the years who have had coordination deficits generally tended to have difficulty using hand and finger motions as well. These difficulties often caused problems with daily living activities such as dressing, manipulating clothing fasteners (buttons, zippers, shoe laces, etc.), using utensils, grooming and hygiene. Planning developmentally appropriate projects
Fingertip prehension patterns begin early on in life, but are some of the last motor functions to mature completely. In some part, this is because such a large part of the motor region in the brain is dedicated to coordinating movements of the hand. This means that it takes more focused attention and mental effort to move the hand and fingers, than it does