Left-handed people are the unseen minority in a right-handed world, with one study estimating that they make up only around 10% of the population. They are more likely to be male than female, and left-handedness occurs at a greater rate in twins than in the general population.

Lefties do some things better …

It’s challenging to be a lefty in a right-handed world, especially when it comes to the tools and gadgets we use to make life easier, not to mention some important everyday tasks.

But that’s not to say that left-handed people are always at a disadvantage. Many of the great sportspeople are left-handed, where their unique techniques give them an advantage over opponents. Tennis, cricket, boxing and other team sports boast some talented left-handed players who have made their mark on the world.

Left-handed people often have better problem-solving skills, too. Whether this is a finely-honed skill in response to living in a right-handed world or an innate advantage is up for debate, but lefties are often good at spatial awareness tasks, logic, and mathematics.

If you have a left-handed child, you will appreciate the uniqueness they bring to family life, but there are also challenges, especially when it comes to teaching your lefty some essential life skills.

Check out my tips below to help your lefty child learn to navigate a right-handed world.

Win the shoelace war

Teaching a left-handed child to tie shoelaces is a major challenge for many right-handed parents because there is just no way a left-handed child will be able to do it the same way.

The best option is to sit opposite your child and have them mirror everything you do. Therefore, if your right hand is making a loop, their left hand will be making the loop. If this is unsuccessful, you can check out this handy blog by Ian, the founder of Ian’s Knot. This type of shoelace knot is symmetrical and no matter your handedness preference, it is the same for everyone. Once mastered, it is fast and easy, and probably the best way to save your sanity! Ian has kindly placed detailed visual instructions and even a video tutorial on his page, so it’s worth learning the knot yourself so you can teach it to your child.

It may take longer for your lefty to learn the intricacies of shoelaces … so be patient!

Paper, scissors … cut!

Teaching a left-handed child to use scissors designed for a right-handed person is well-nigh impossible and will likely only result in frustration for both of you. They are simply not designed to function from a left-handed position, and the best thing you can do is to ensure that your child has left-handed scissors at school and home.

Just for fun, try holding a pair of right-handed scissors in your left hand. Feel how awkward and uncomfortable it is? Do you think you’d be very effective with them? Now, imagine trying to learn how to use them in that position. You can picture the frustration a left-handed child might feel with a tool that is only intended for use by right-handed people.

The mouse trap

Yes, using a computer mouse intended for right-handed people is frustrating and awkward for a left-handed child. Fortunately, there are some simple fixes.

The easiest way is to buy your child a designated left-hand mouse that’s for their use only and separate from what everyone else in the family uses.

But if you want a budget-friendly option, it’s easy to program your mouse to switch buttons so that it becomes user-friendly for lefties. You can find instructions for Windows here, and Mac users can go here to find out how.

Pencil particulars

Learning to write is a very different experience for a left-handed person and can be quite a challenge for parents and teachers. Check out my tips below for helping your lefty learn to write.

· A left-handed child needs to tilt the top of their page to the right, so it is parallel with their left forearm

· Elbow-bumps might be a Covid-appropriate greeting, but it’s not fun when students are bumping elbows as they work. Have your lefty sit at the end of the row or to the left of another student so they have plenty of elbow room.

· Always allow plenty of elbow room on the left of the child while they are writing

· Make sure the child is keeping their wrist straight for the correct writing position. Many left-handed people fall into the habit of using a “hook” grip because they position their hand above their writing so they can see. The result is that their wrist curves around in a “hook” shape as they hold the pencil. This type of grip will lead to pain and fatigue over time.

· The best way to avoid the hook grip is to teach the child to position their hand below their work so they can still see, and maintain a straight wrist.

· Left-handed children have difficulty using a finger for spacing between words. Instead, teach your left to imagine a round ball shape between the words for spacing.

· It’s easy for a left-handed child to smear their work when using a pen, so choose a pen that has quick-drying ink.

At the dinner table

Many left-handed people use their cutlery in the same way as right-handed people, although this can change according to circumstances. Most prefer to hold a spoon in their left hand, and many prefer to hold a fork in their dominant hand, with the knife hand being the less dominant one.

Regardless of your child’s preferences for using cutlery, it’s important to allow them to do what feels best. To this day, some places discourage the natural use of the left hand, such as this school in the UK.

But it’s important to recognize – and celebrate – the diversity in our world, and this includes those whose preference for handedness is in the minority.

To support your child learning to use cutlery at the dinner table, encourage them to use whatever feels best and then work on growing their skills. Also, allow them plenty of elbow space at the table so they aren’t cramped or bumping elbows with a right-handed person.

Appreciate their uniqueness

There’s no doubt that lefties add variety and diversity to our world with their quirky ways of solving problems and the way they think and do things. If you have a lefty in your family, celebrate their uniqueness, and enjoy helping them to become the best version of themselves that they can be.

We hear a lot about screen time and the effects on developing brains, but children and young people with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) are particularly at risk of adverse side-effects. Families struggling to cope with life with a child or teen with ASD are also at greater risk because of the exacerbated symptoms of excess screen time.

Correlation Does Not Equal Causation

While there are definite links between screen time and its effects on an autistic brain, it’s important to note that screen time has not been proven to cause autism. One Swedish study in 2014 concluded that the cause is likely a 50/50 split between environmental and genetic factors. As a complex disorder,  many other related factors also lie in the origins of the disorder within individuals.

Why are Autistic Brains more Vulnerable to the Effects of Screen Time?

Although we are all susceptible to the effects of excess screen time to one degree or another, young brains are more vulnerable than adults, and it affects children and young people with ASD much more than anyone else. This is because the unique characteristics of a brain with ASD  lend themselves far more readily to the disruption and chaos caused within the brain by screen time. ASD brains are not wired to readily process the regular use of technology without side-effects.
Not only are children with ASD more susceptible to the harmful effects of screen time, but they are also less able to recover. The effects last longer and have a deeper impact simply because their brains are not wired to cope. They are more sensitive, less resilient and more prone to lasting effects.

What Does Excess Screen Time Do to Children with ASD?

Excess screen time has a profound effect on the behaviour and coping mechanisms of children with ASD. These include the following;

1. Exacerbated Arousal Regulation Issues

Children with ASD often struggle with arousal regulation issues such as emotional dysregulation, exaggerated responses to stress, and a tendency to be either overstimulated or understimulated [1]. Excess screen time exacerbates all of these issues and manifests itself as exaggerated emotional dysregulation and increased likelihood of acute and chronic stress. It also causes overstimulation and hyperarousal [2].

2. Augmented Sleep Disturbances

Children with ASD often suffer from low melatonin, leading to sleep disturbances, particularly when technology is used at night [3]. Melatonin regulates the body clock and is critical for normal sleeping and waking patterns. It also works with other hormones to keep the brain chemistry balanced, plays a part in regulating immunity, and lowers inflammation. Excess screen time suppresses the production of melatonin, leading to even greater problems with sleep in children with ASD.

3. Increased Social and Communication Deficits

Screen time hinders the development of social and communication skills – even in children and teens that don’t have ASD [4]. This manifests as an inability to make eye contact, impaired ability to read body language, low levels of empathy and a delay in gaining language skills.

4. Higher Anxiety Levels

Children with ASD are prone to anxiety and screen time increases the risk of social anxiety and OCD issues. In addition, children with autism have been shown to be at greater risk of abnormal serotonin synthesis and amygdala activity and changes in amydala activity and serotonin regulation have been observed as a result of screen time [5].

5. Magnified Sensory Processing Issues

Children with ASD are more likely to experience sensory and motor integration problems such as sensory processing disorders, tics, and vocal and motor delays. Screen time worsens these issues, particularly sensori-motor delays. Tics may also worse due to higher dopamine levels.

Strategies to Help Families Reduce or Eliminate Screen Time

1. Educate Families About the Risks of Screen Time on an Autistic Brain

For many families, the use of technology is tempting because it restores peace, at least for a short time. So it is important that families understand the benefits of reducing or eliminating technology or they may be unwilling to try something new.

2. Encourage Families to do a Technology Detox

When families understand how technology use affects the brain of a child with ASD, initiating change is easier. Encourage them to try it for a specified time period (4 weeks is a good length of time to aim for) and see if it makes a difference.

3. Come up with Strategies to Replace Screen Time

Weaning a child off a favourite device will be more successful if parents have a plan in place ahead of time to replace that time with something more interesting or engaging. This will be something that fits each family’s unique dynamics, but memory-making events, spending time together out in nature, and playing together are options that can work well.

4. Encourage Parents to Limit their Own Technology Use

Encourage parents to model what they are trying to achieve. When children see that parents are not using technology either, they are more likely to accept the family’s decision to limit or eliminate screen time from family life.

5. Educate Parents about Healthy Sleep Habits

Some parents are not aware of the effects of screen time on sleeping habits – even for children and teens that don’t have ASD. Encourage parents to turn off all technology at least 2 hours before bedtime and establish regular bedtime routines and rituals. Preparing a child’s brain for bed is half the battle won.

If you would like to know more about screen time and autism, get in touch and call Deb or send us an email. We’ll be happy to talk to you!

References:

[1]. Matthew S. Goodwin et al., “Cardiovascular Arousal in Individuals with Autism,” Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities 21, no. 2 (2006): 100–123; BA Corbett and D Simon, “Adolescence, Stress and Cortisol in Autism Spectrum Disorders.,” OA Autism 1, no. 1 (March 1, 2013): 1–6.
[2].  Marjut Wallenius, “Salivary Cortisol in Relation to the Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in School-Aged Children,” Psychology 1, no. 2 (2010): 88–95; Amy E. Mark and Ian Janssen, “Relationship between Screen Time and Metabolic Syndrome in Adolescents,” Journal of Public Health 30, no. 2 (June 1, 2008): 153–60; Gary S. Goldfield et al., “Video Game Playing Is Independently Associated with Blood Pressure and Lipids in Overweight and Obese Adolescents,” ed. Philippe Rouet, PLoS ONE 6, no. 11 (November 1, 2011): e26643.
[3]. ] Shigekazu Higuchi et al., “Effects of Vdt Tasks with a Bright Display at Night on Melatonin, Core Temperature, Heart Rate, and Sleepiness,” Journal of Applied Physiology (Bethesda, Md.: 1985) 94, no. 5 (May 2003): 1773–76.
[4].  R. Adolphs, L. Sears, and J. Piven, “Abnormal Processing of Social Information from Faces in Autism,” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 13, no. 2 (February 15, 2001): 232–40.
[5]. Jun Kohyama, “Neurochemical and Neuropharmacological Aspects of Circadian Disruptions: An Introduction to Asynchronization,” Current Neuropharmacology 9, no. 2 (2011): 330; Klaus Mathiak and René Weber, “Toward Brain Correlates of Natural Behavior: fMRI during Violent Video Games,” Human Brain Mapping 27, no. 12 (December 2006): 948–56.

Let’s see how sensory issues impact self regulation at homework time.
Okay, so you know your child has sensory issues which make it hard for them to self regulate at the best of times …. but, oh my goodness, how can you help them cope with their sensory issues when it’s time to do their homework?!
At LifeSkills4Kids, we know how hard that time of the day can be – don’t worry, we are here to provide you with lots of tips and suggestions which will help you and your child navigate homework time.

Top Tips to help your child with sensory issues at homework time

What about the furniture?

• We all work best when the chair/desk we use are a good fit and we can have our feet flat on the floor and be able to rest our elbows on the desk/table.
• In addition, if you child finds it hard to sit still, you could add an inflated seat cushion or a pillow – so that moving around in the seat is not a problem
• You may find that your child works best if they are seated on a large exercise ball, so that they can fidget but stay seated
• There are various seating modifications which you can buy to help your child, check out the suggestions in our article here
• Also make sure that the homework area is a place free of distracting noise

What about the lighting?

• If it’s possible, eliminate any buzzing and flickering fluorescent lighting
• Give your child input on what sort of lighting works best for them

How you can help

• Provide sensory breaks such as walking in circles, jumping on a mini-trampoline or sucking on sour candy. These will provide your child with the sensory input they need to be able to concentrate on homework tasks
• Work with your child and find out what fidget toys and type of sensory kit they need to be just right to be able to get their homework done.  Don’t be afraid of accommodating some surprising requests – some kids need dark glasses, ear defenders and a stress ball; others need silly putty and headphones with music on
• Explore together what works best and help your kid focus – remember you are working on creating a ‘just right’ environment to allow them to succeed
• For further information about the Just Right Kids Technique which Deb has developed, find out more here 
• Ask your kid’s school what sort of visual timetable they use and modify this for homework time.
• Remember that you and your child are the ‘experts’ in knowing what is needed to provide the right space to thrive and learn in.

Experiment Together

• You know your young person really well and it is vitally important to include them in working out the best way to succeed during their homework time
• If you can make this into a game, you will contribute to your child’s sense of fun and ownership of their learning
• Let them know it’s fine to experiment and that you want to take an active part in making a ‘Just Right’ homework space – spend some time together, planning, resourcing and creating this homework space
• Sensory processing issues can occur with any of the senses:
  • Touch
  • Taste
  • Vision
  • Hearing
  • Olfactory (smell)

  Other senses that may not be thought of commonly also include:

  • Muscle/Body Awareness (proprioception)
  • Spatial Orientation (Vestibular)
• For more information have a look at our article on finding out if your kid has sensory issues

Be flexible and listen to your kid

• There are also other factors to consider when you are helping your kid to learn to self regulate and get their homework done
• Take some time together to think about your child’s favourite type of ‘relaxing’ clothes – think easy to wear, soft, seamless and with minimum amounts of buttons or zippers.  Your kid might want to always wear the same clothes – their ‘homework’ clothes as this provides a level of safety for them
• Know the signs of your kid getting anxious/worried and notice the triggers that may effect them.  You may find that your child prefers to work in a space that is close to you eg in the corner of the lounge where you are or, alternatively you may find they prefer to take them themselves to a quiet space where they can be alone
• Routines: Kids with sensory issues do best when they know what to expect. Establishing consistent routines around after-school routine and homework time, will help them feel more comfortable and less overwhelmed.  This is also where using visuals can be really helpful, your kid can be encouraged to follow the routine of the visuals that you use – eg, you can have a visual for what they are doing now and then for what they will be doing next.  This is a very simple way to provide a timeframe to help your kid cope with homework time.
• Rewards: We all thrive on rewards and your kid is just the same in this respect!  You could agree how much homework they have to complete to get a specified reward – make the rewards fun, attractive to your kid and make a big fuss of them when they achieve their agreed homework goal.

Get extra help if you need it

• At LifeSkills4Kids, we are passionate about helping kids with sensory issues
• Our expertise as Occupational Therapists can help you to find ways to make their learning a positive and enjoyable experience
• Check out our Sensory blog for some great tips and help with helping your child with sensory issues:
  • Helping your child who has anxiety for sensory reasons
  • Supporting emotional wellbeing at home with the help of visuals
  • Supporting your child to communicate when they are anxious
  • You can also download our PDF about helping kids with homework here

This may be claimed via NDIS.

Your Options as a *Founding Member:
1. PAY MONTHLY: $49 incl. GST
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 Sensory issues that impact self regulation at the dinner table.

Most of us love dinner time and look forward to enjoying the different textures, tastes and smells of eating.
For a kid with sensory issues though, being at the dinner table can be an incredibly hard time of their day.
How can you make it more manageable for your young person?
What strategies can you use to help your child?

Impact of sensory issues on self regulation

When your child has sensory issues, it makes it much harder for them to self regulate and also to explain to you what is going on and causing them a problem.
We are passionate at LifeSkills4Kids in helping young people to find strategies which they can use to make their lives manageable and rewarding.
As parents, the ways in which we interact with our children has the broadest influence on a child’s behaviour because it creates the emotional climate within which a child makes decisions about his or her actions.
Our parenting style influences the development of self-regulation, the ability of a child to govern him/herself, in very specific ways. There are some key factors which can influence this:

• Show positive versus negative emotion.
• Are accepting (not dismissing) of their children’s emotional expression.
• Are not overly controlling of their children’s behaviour.

Providing consistent messaging and following through with promises also helps children establish self-discipline and a willingness to delay gratification.
This all sound great in theory.  But if your child has sensory issues too, your parenting style may need to be changed to accommodate these extra needs.
The following are some strategies and ideas to help you to promote self regulation at the dinner table with your young person who has sensory issues.

Strategies for making dinner time a success

Play with food

• Your child will be able to become accustomed to different textures and consistencies through play and exploration of their food
• This is a vital step in enabling sensory kids to make some sense of the sensory issues that they may encounter with food before they ever think about having to try to put the food into their mouth
• You don’t have to do this at the dinner table – it could be that you build in some ‘fun’ sessions with food and allow your child to explore the food first in a safe, ‘play’ environment
• I have found that this can work really well if you give your child plenty of warning and do some play sessions with the same food over a few days and then introduce it into a ‘dinner’ scenario
• My favourite food to begin with is mashed potato.  And we have had endless hours of fun making things with mashed potato (I personally love making a mashed potato mountain and then adding a ski run all the way from top to bottom!)
• You can also experiment with temperature as kids with sensory issues can be very sensitive to their food being just the right temperature

Break eating down into steps

• Once you have explored certain types of food together, then it is time to introduce them at the dinner table
• Your child might benefit from adding a ‘new’ food to an existing plateful of food which they are already used to
• It is important to make sure that if you do this, the ‘new’ food is NOT touching any of the familiar food. It very definitely has a ‘space’ on your child’s plate all of its own.
• The first time you introduce this new food, you can make it clear that you don’t expect your child to try it
• The second time this new food makes an appearance, suggest that your child takes a small bite out of it and holds it in their mouth
• Each time you do this, be clear that each step forward is a very small one.  Accept that it may take your child several attempts to allow the food into their mouth, to chew it and eventually to swallow it

Use distractions at the dinner table

• Make your dinner table time a fun and relaxed environment for both you and your child
• You can play favourite games, allow your child to bring favourite toys to dinner, use fidget toys or provide your child with a dinner table sensory kit.
• The key here is to ensure that your child sees dinner time and being at the dinner table as a fun, safe and non-threatening place to be

Using Visuals to help you and your child

• Ask school if they use visuals to help your child and, if possible, use the same ones at the dinner table
• Kids with sensory issues often struggle to communicate if they are having problems – if you can provide them with visuals, this often helps them to open up to you
• We have some great articles about how to use visuals to help your young person self regulate:
  o check out our Just Right Kids Technique
  o Look here to get free Sensory Processing Tip Sheets
  o And here for help with fussy eaters

Strengthen Muscle Tone

As an occupational therapist, I come across many kids with sensory issues who struggle to eat because of their muscle tone. Eating can seem as daunting as climbing a mountain if your child’s muscles aren’t strong enough to eat their food without tiring quickly.
Strengthening your child’s muscle tone can all be part of the game of ‘dinner time’.   There are some great activities which will increase facial muscle tone and make eating easier for your child.  For example, blowing bubbles, whistles and balloons will all help, as well as giving the lungs a good work out.
You could also suggest that your child learns to play a wind instrument or you could practice mindfulness together and do breathing exercises as part of that.

Change of scenery

• Kids love to have adventures and making the ‘dinner table’ experience into one is great for the whole family!
• You can take your dinner table outside and provide an alternative sensory experience to help your child to cope with eating – it’s all about taking the pressure of having to eat away.
• Similarly you could go on a picnic together, visit a friend’s or family member’s house or go to a restaurant
• Wherever you decide to go, make sure that the emphasis is on fun, no pressure and a positive experience for both you, your child and all the family
• The change of scenery is NOT about eating, it’s about helping your child to feel relaxed, have fun and …. Eventually to enjoy their eating experience. Be patient and allow your child to dictate the pace

This may be claimed via NDIS.

Your Options as a *Founding Member:
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Steps to using a self regulation program as a ‘whole class’ classroom management strategy
Teaching children about their emotions and how to manage them in a school environment is a complex and long range task. All children need to learn these skills, but often in a classroom there are a cluster of at least 5-6 students who would benefit from learning how to be more self aware, noticing how they are feeling and being able to communicate that to others, and then knowing the strategies for what to do to help them self regulate and keep calm or in the just right zone for learning. It is for this reason that a ‘whole class’ or even better a ‘whole school’ approach to self regulation is ideal as a best practice model.
This week I’ve been asked to introduce and implement a whole class and whole school approach to teaching self regulation in a local school. This school is small, with only 3 classes, so it’s a little easier to plan and do than a very large school (but which I’d be very happy to do when the chance arises).
Introducing a self regulation program for individual children is really easy, as you can tailor the needs to the child and the parent, but what do you need to consider as a whole class approach and how do you get started on a bigger project for a whole class?

1. Consult, consult, consult.

As a therapist going into a school, it’s really important to understand that by being invited into a teacher’s classroom, or a whole school, it is like walking into a teacher’s living room or office nook. It’s a very personal space and it’s important to be mindful of this. Teacher’s work in their classrooms every day and have particular reasons for how and why things are set up a certain way as well as putting their personal mark in creating their learning environment.
For this reason, I make sure that I have a good rapport with the teachers, understand a little about their teaching style, how they interact with their class and make sure that I create a strong connection with them.
Make sure that they have your phone number and email and invite them to give you feedback, to contact you if things go well or not so well. Be a team player.
Ask them what programs or strategies they have tried in the past. Ask them what works or doesn’t seem to work. Keep asking questions and try and really get a sense of what the underlying issue might be and what small changes might make a massive difference.

2. Decide on a visual and program model for teaching self regulation and emotional regulation concepts

We talked a little about this in our previous blog on planning classroom management strategies.
Using visuals in the classroom can be a really effective way of supporting self regulation skills, behaviour management programs and promoting emotional regulation.
So when planning for a whole class self regulation program, there are a number of programs that we can draw from including:

1. The Alert Program – The Alert Program is one of the original self regulation programs and underpins the more recent ones listed below. It teaches kids about their body being “high” or “low” or “just right” state of alertness.
2. The Zones of Regulation Program – I feel that the Zones of Regulation Program builds onto The Alert Program and adds another layer for the older children and has a great manual with printables which focuses on a more cognitive approach.
3. The Just Right Kids Model – The Just Right Kids Model is an Australian-based model which builds on the other models, but it separates the concepts of how busy or fast my body is going and the emotions, which is a different layer to the above two programs. Developed by Deb Hopper, Occupational Therapist it is a great model for older kids and for kids who are on the autism spectrum who really like to be specific about how they are feeling.

Personally, I find that a combination of these programs and concepts is needed to tailor make the right approach for a specific classroom, teaching style or the needs or understanding of the children who will be using this program.

3. Collaborate with the school team on how to implement and start training teachers, and the stages of rollout.

Collaboration can be done as a whole school team, or with individual classrooms teachers, depending on what has been requested. It’s important to collaborate with the Principal and stage leader teachers if it’s a bigger school, as well as the individual teachers.
If a particular classroom as been identified as a trial, it is still really important to educate the wider school so that teachers across the school have a basic idea of what is being trialled, the rationale and the basic concepts. This is so that when other teachers are filling in, or supporting children on the playground, that children can be supported with the language of the program not just in the classroom but in the playground, at recess or lunch or in assembly or other larger school activities.
Having the whole school aware of the stages of the rollout is really important so that expectations are managed from both sides.
In all stages of trialling and implementing a self regulation program in a school for the first time includes lots of consultation and collaboration.
In creating change, we need to all make an effort to be on the same page, be willing to try new concepts and programs and be open to constructive feedback and to make changes. At times there is tension between the school system and the therapy systems who might suggest these changes.
Let’s continue to nurture relationships between all sides of the school and therapy systems. We have a common goal – to support, nurture and enhance learning for all students. We CAN work together and we CAN learn mountains from each other through active collaboration.
Good luck!  I’m looking forward to my next roll out over the next few months in my new school!

Improving Fine Motor Skills

Written by Deb Hopper

Published in

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Sometimes it’s the little things in life that make the biggest difference and sometimes the little things in life can be the most difficult. Many children struggle with fine motor skills, or the ability to use their fingers to get the little things done. This might include doing up buttons, zips, doing up shoe laces, playing with favourite construction toys such as Lego, holding cutlery, or helping to pour themselves a drink for example.
There are three main reasons why children might find these day to day things difficult to do. These are hand and body strength, dexterity and finger co-ordination and the ability to plan what they need to do. Practicing these skills at home can be easy, fun and low cost to do. If your child continues to struggle, please contact your occupational therapist, preschool or school teacher for some more ideas.
Here are 5 top tips for making the little movements easier.
1.Sometimes a child finds it hard to control fine finger movements needed in things such as drawing or Lego because they don’t have a stable body base.
We need to have strong core postural muscles and good control of big arm movements, before we can do small movement tasks such as drawing. Body strengthening activities such as swimming, trampolining, or lying on a skate board and pushing themselves around helps children to create a strong postural core, arms and legs, to act as a solid base for finger based co-ordination tasks.
2. Sometimes children also need to strengthen their hands and arm muscles so they have the strength to open milk containers, lunch boxes or the toothpaste.
Just like adults go to the gym to strengthen our big muscles, children can also strengthen their hand muscles. For younger children, pull out the playdoh and roll snakes, pinch patterns and make snails. For older kids, they need extra resistance so try plasticine or a soft to medium strength theraputty, for hand strengthening. Or, think outside the box and get them to ‘paint the fence’. This activity is cheap and the large arm movements needed will help strengthen their arms. For strengthening little fingers, buy a cheap water sprayer and give them the job of watering the pot plants. It’s a great strengthening activity and will help you too!
3. If your child is struggling with a daily task, such as tying his or her shoelaces, help to give them the feeling of success.
Backward chaining is a great way to build confidence in fine motor skills. This means that you complete most of the task and then they do the last part. You say, ‘Well done!’ and build up their self-esteem. The next time, you do one less step and coach them in what to do, to complete the last two steps, giving praise at the end. Continue until they can do the whole task.
4. Play the ‘tell you what to do game’. This game is great for kids who struggle with planning or motor planning.
Start with bigger movements while they learn the rules of the game, for example, jumping. Get them to tell you what
their body is going to do when they do the activity, e.g. ‘jump’. For example, for jumping you need to bend your knees, put your bottom backwards, push up, jump and land. Once they get used to ‘telling’ you how to do bigger
tasks, get them to tell you how they do things with their fingers. For example, ask them to tell you how they will pick up their glass of milk at breakfast time. This could be ‘reach out, open my hand, pick up cup, move towards
my mouth, take a drink, put it back on table’. Connecting thoughts of planning words into action can help create links in the brain to make fine motor tasks easier.
5. You don’t need to buy lots of fancy toys with bells and whistles to improve motor skills. The best way to learn is to use and practise with containers, jars, lunch boxes, opening cereal boxes or helping to pack the dishwasher. If you child is finding a particular task difficult, say ‘Stop, think, breathe, what is your plan?’ Once we can stop and get a plan together, it can help to overcome feelings and responses of frustration, makes learning the task easier and creates best feedback pathways to the brain for the next level of learning.
So next time your child is struggling with something fiddly, ‘Stop, think, breathe, ask what their plan is’. Think about what fun and low cost games you can do with them, or set up for them, to make it easier next time.

7 Top Tips

Improve your Child’s Fine Motor Skills

When helping kids to develop accurate fine motor skills, it is important to understand how we use our hands. When we are manipulating small objects such as buttons, our hands are separated into two sides and each side is used differently. One side of the hand (often called the skilled side) includes the thumb, the index finger and the middle finger. The other side includes the ring finger and the little finger.  When doing up a button, the skilled side will often do most of the work, and the ring and little fingers may assist with stabilising the hand against the shirt or be tucked into the hand. The hand is used in a similar way during writing, with the skilled side of the hand grasping the pencil and the other two fingers often tucked under. Therefore, it is very important to develop good fine motor control on the skilled side of the hand.  The next few posts will have ideas for helping kids to develop this control.

1. A fun idea to help your child develop Fine Motor Skills, and to get them helping around the house. Using tongs, let your child help with putting things into the salad bowl at dinner time, unscrewing lids, water plants with a spray bottle or get them to help with washing activities such as washing up or cleaning windows.

2. Use water play to encourage Fine Motor Skills. Use Spray bottles and eyedroppers filled with water to make water drawings on the dry concrete outside.

3. Play board games with your child.  Get your child to manipulate small pieces around a board game to encourage Fine Motor Skills or try Jigsaw puzzles with small knob handles.

4. Drawing with small pieces of chalk or broken crayons is a great workout for little hands. Or try playing games with small tokens and coins such as monopoly or shopkeeper.

5. Pegging, pegs bring hours of fun to most children. If I give my children a bucket of pegs I won’t hear a peep out of them for a long time. Why not try to get your little one to peg the pegs to a bucket or help peg the washing or dolls clothes to the line.

6. Beading and threading will bring hours of fun to any little one. A great game to play, your child won’t even notice their fingers are having a workout. Or alternatively, an old-fashioned spinning top is an inexpensive, fun way to get little fingers working.