DESENVOLVIMENTO MOTOR

1. Occupational Therapy
Fine Motor Activities
for Home
Fine motor skills are the way we use our hands and fingers to pick up, hold and use objects. Fine motor strength
and fine motor coordination (control) need to be working together for children to successfully use their hands to do
things. Fine motor skills are important for helping children learn to become independent. For example, children
need good fine motor skills to get dressed, feed themselves, clean their teeth, play with toys and write their name.
These activities are only a starting point and guide. Use your imagination and be creative. It can also be useful to
complete a gross motor activity or two before you do fine motor activities. This will help with maintain
concentration and attention if sitting down to complete a fine motor activity.
Occupational Therapy is a holistic profession that helps people across the lifespan participate in the things they
want and need to do through the therapeutic use of everyday activities, also known as “occupations”. We use
these occupations as both the intervention and outcome of therapy. Hence the name “occupational therapy”.
This pack has been designed by the Occupational Therapist from the London Children’s Practice who works at
Lansdowne School and includes some activities and games that can be used to target gross motor skills while the
students are at home.

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Activity: Playdough
Equipment:
• Playdough
• A matt/plastic sheet (if you don’t want playdough all over the table.
• Cutters
Method:
• Roll snakes and balls with the playdough
• Pinch along the snake
• Use the playdough to form different letters, numbers, shapes and items
• Wrap playdough around fingers and try to spread fingers out
• Encourage finger isolation (using one finger at a time) while playing with the playdough
Things to keep in mind:
• Theraputty can be used if you need to make this activity harder
• Below is a recipe to make playdough
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Activity: Threading with beads
Equipment:
• String, cord or thread
• Beads of various sizes
Method:
• Tread the beads onto the string
• You can create patterns with shapes and colours. This can be used to assist with turn taking
or following instructions.
Things to keep in mind:
• Encourage a pincer grasp when treading the beads onto the string.
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Activity: Hole punching and treading
Equipment:
• Laminated paper or cardboard
• Whole punch
• Coloured thread or string
Method:
• Punch holes in the paper/cardboard
• Thread the string through the holes
• You can use the string to make patterns and designs. This can be used to assist with turn
taking or following instructions.
• You can tie bows and notes into the string as well.
Things to keep in mind:
• Encourage a pincer grasp on the tread
• This can be used as a warm up task or as a modelling activity/tool for tying shoe laces

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Activity: Pipe cleaner caterpillars
Equipment:
• Pipe cleaners
Method:
• Use a pincer grasp to make as many tiny bends in the pipe cleaner as you can
• Try and beat the number of bends you have made
Things to keep in mind:
• This can be a hard task to grasp initially. Modelling, hand over hand assistance and verbal
prompting may be required.
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Activity: Sorting buttons/beads
Equipment:
• Jars/containers/plates
• Different coloured or shaped beads or buttons
Method:
• If using jars or containers, open these first.
• Use a pincer grasp to pick up the beads or buttons
• Sort according to size or colour. You could also sort according to a patter, which can be
used to assist with following instructions.
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Activity: Clothes pegs
Equipment:
• Pegs
• Clothes line or clothes horse
• Objects to peg onto the line (clothing, paper, etc.)
Method:
• Encourage them to help put clothes on the washing line with pegs.
Things to keep in mind:
• This activity can be conducted during a normal washing routine.
• This can be simplified by simply placing the pegs onto the line.
• To make the activity a game, try a race to see who can place the largest number of pegs
within a certain time frame.
• As this activity is typically completed in standing, and using reach (reaching up to the
clothes line) it will also work on posture and balance.
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Activity: Using a spray bottle
Equipment:
• Water spray bottle
Method:
• This activity can be woven into various functional and play settings.
• Function: use a spray bottle to help water the garden or clean windows
• Play: add some food colouring to the water and spray onto paper to create a painting.
Things to keep in mind:
• The pulling on the bottle’s leaver will help strengthen finger muscles.
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Activity: Tong relays
Equipment:
• Tongs
• Something to carry (an egg, small ball, towel, etc.)
Method:
• Have a race carrying objects from onside of the room to the other, while holding them with
tongs.
• You can have multiple items to carry and then put down on the other side of the room, so
that hold and release is practiced or is can be a race.
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Activity: General arts and craft
Equipment:
• Paint
• Pens/Pencils/Texters/Markers
• Scissors
• Glue
• Paper
• Etc.
Method:
• This is a relaxed and creating way to engage in writing skills (using pens, etc. and can help
to promote pencil grasp)
• Using scissors to complete a craft activity will assist in developing bilateral control
Things to keep in mind:
• When using scissors, the control comes from the thumb and middle finger. All fingers can
be placed in n the larger hole, but if only one finger fits it should be the middle finger.
• The supporting hand when cutting should have the thumb on top of the paper and the
fingers underneath the paper.
• Encourage a tripod grasp on the pen when possible
• Using finger when painting can work on finger isolation and hand control
• Trial using other objects such as droppers to disperse paint, as this will assist with the
pincer grasp

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Activity: Dress ups
Equipment:
• Old clothes
• Fancy dress
Method:
• Play games were they require a costume
• They should be encouraged to do up buttons, sip and Velcro
• Aim for them to dress themselves, even if it is not correct initially
Things to keep in mind:
• As this can conducted with humour and the approach of being silly, less concern can be
given to buttons lining up correctly.
• The aim is for them to practice dressing, buttons and zips.
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Activity: Bubble wrap
Equipment:
• Bubble wrap
• Something to pop it with (fingers, a pen, etc.)
Method:
• Pop away!
Things to keep in mind:
• If using fingers, this can assist with finger isolation (using one finger at a time) or pincer
grasp if pinching the bubbles. If using an object, encourage a pincer grasp.
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Activity: Puzzles
Equipment:
• Various puzzles of different sizes
Method:
• Put the puzzle together
Things to keep in mind:
• This can also assist with hand eye coordination and hand control to put the pieces together
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Activity: In hand manipulation
Equipment:
• Beads/buttons/cut up straw pieces
Method:
• Practice rolling the object around your hand and up and down your fingers
Things to keep in mind:
• This works on the small muscles in our hand and helps to improve hand strength
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6. Activity: Fluency patterns
Equipment:
• Fluency patter
• Something to trace with (a finger/pen/pencil/texter)
Method:
• Encourage them to trace the line as carefully as they can, trying not to come off the line or
outside the track
Things to keep in mind:
• Encourage a tripod grasp on the pencil
• You can draw your own fluency patter for them to complete, or you can download them
from the internet (look up fluency patters or tracing pictures)
Trace and then copy the patterns and then copy them on a new page
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10. Activity: Colouring
Equipment:
• A picture to colour in (colouring book, hand drawn or from the internet)
• Pens/Pencils/Texters/Markers
Method:
• Get colouring!
Things to keep in mind:
• Encourage a tripod grasp on the pencil
• If you want to work on following instructions and how many steps being given, tell them
how to colour in (e.g. colour 2 flowers red and 1 flower blue)
Please some colouring pages below