What will your child learn in preschool? Even though your young child will build early literacy and math skills, these aren't the only areas they'll work on. Along with academic abilities, your child will also develop fine motor skills. If your child is ready to start a preschool center, take a look at what you need to know about fine motor skills and your child's early education.
What Are Fine Motor Skills?
Fine, or small, motor skills include movements made by the hands and fingers. These include dexterity, coordination, and strength-based abilities. As your child moves through the pre-k years (three- to five-years-old), they'll develop the ability to use these skills in increasingly more sophisticated ways.
What Fine Motor Skills Will Your Child Build in Preschool?
The answer to this question depends on your child's age, the early learning center, and the school's curriculum. In general, most children in pre-kindergarten classes build skills related to self-help (such as feeding and dressing) and writing or pre-writing.
How Will Your Child Develop Fine Motor Skills?
Again, like with the specific fine motor skills, you won't find one universal answer to this question. Activities vary between schools, teachers, and overall early education curriculum components. Some examples of fine motor lessons or activities that can help your young child build these skills include the following:
- Math manipulatives. Some early childhood educators combine fine motor and mathematics skills into one hands-on activity. Counting beads, small toys (such as bears or balls), and paper markers or chips all connect math education with hand and finger skills.
- Meal and snack times. Along with getting daily nutrition, meals and snack times also offer the young child a way to practice their utensil skills. These require your child to use their hands and fingers to move and manipulate forks and spoons while developing these abilities.
- Art activities. Painting, coloring, collaging, and using scissors are all ways to build fine motor skills. Like other movement-based activities, these also help your child in other areas. Art can increase creative, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills too.
- Puzzles. Like art, puzzles are fine motor activities that can also help your child to improve problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.
- Playing with blocks. Moving, manipulating, and building with blocks give your child the chance to develop dexterity and small muscle strength. This type of activity can also build spatial skills and math abilities.
From math to art and beyond, your child's preschool day is packed with fine motor activities. These hand and finger skills help your child to grow and develop right now and down the road as they progress through school. Contact a preschool center near you to learn more today.
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