I’m sure you know this already but when children are playing with toys, they aren’t just keeping busy; they’re doing some serious learning, too. Many studies have found that unstructured playtime (e.g. open-ended, simple wooden toys, for example) is both valuable and favored over structured play. Let your children’s imagination soar as they play with toys that don’t have an obvious, single use. Wooden toys give your child the permission he or she needs to dream up their own ideas and learn from them!
Fine motor skills start to develop when a child uses the smaller muscles in their hands, wrists, fingers, feet and toes. Developing those muscles includes actions like grasping, holding, pressing, or using a pincer grip (holding something between the fore-finger and thumb).
For young children of preschool, kindergarten and early school age, fine motor skill development is extremely important. For a fun way to improve your child's motor skills when it's rainy outside, try making one of these 7 things with them.
Why are fine motor skills important?
Fine motor skills are vital for doing everyday activities like buttoning up a shirt, using utensils to eat, tying shoelaces, cutting with scissors and writing. As adults, we use fine motor skills so often in our daily lives that it’s easy to not realize that the task we are completing requires a certain skill set and the use of certain muscles.
I hear a lot of parents say, "But my baby likes it!" Infants may stare at the bright colors and motion on a screen, but their brains are incapable of making sense or meaning out of all those bizarre pictures.
It takes around 18 months for a baby's brain to develop to the point where the symbols on a screen come to represent their equivalents in the real world.
What infants and toddlers need most to learn is interaction with the people around them. That doesn't mean that they shouldn't video-chat with a distant grandparent or a deployed parent, but when it comes to day-to-day learning they need to touch things, shake them, throw them, and most of all to see the faces and hear the voices of those they love the most. Apps can teach toddlers to tap and swipe at a screen, but studies tell us that these skills don't translate into real-world learning. See Healthy Digital Media Use Habits for Babies, Toddlers & Preschoolers.
