Fine MotorBabyKindergartnersPreschoolersToddlers3 Comments
So many life skills are in need of strong pincer grip! Pincer grasp activities are a great way to start your baby, toddler or preschooler writing, eating, buttoning and threading with ease and fun!
Why is pincer grasp (or grip) important?
Developing the pincer grasp (grip) in an extremely important milestone in a child’s development of their fine motor skills.
Not only do they need this skill for eating and playing but also for self care tasks such as zipping and buttoning and then eventually for writing (holding the pencil).
Children will usually start to develop this hand manipulation skill at about 10-12 months old and will continue refining it until about age 5 or 6.
Pincer grasp development will go through many stages and can be practiced using multiple age appropriate activities.
Expand on pincer grip with the Go-To Fine Motor List!
Pincer Grasp Activities for Babies
When a baby starts to develop the pincer grasp, food and toys are the best motivators for them.
- Grab a whisk from your kitchen drawer and some pom poms and this activity is ready to go.
- The only supplies needed for this activity is some painters tape. Put your baby in their high chair and this peeling tape activity will be ready to go in just a few minutes.
- Your baby is going to love rescuing all the balls from a muffin tin in this activity. Give it a go!
- This ribbon pull activity is sure to keep you little one occupied for awhile!
- Babies love music! Give this homemade guitar a try with your little one!
- Edible play dough…why not!! Let your baby smoosh and squish all they want!
Some other simple hand gripping activities you can try with your baby are:
- Self-feeding: spread out some small pieces of food like Gerber Puffs on your baby’s high chair tray and encourage them to pick them up with their finger and thumb.
- Turning Book Pages: read with your child and encourage them to flip the pages of the book.
- Block Play– give your baby some small blocks to play with. Ensure they aren’t too big as you want them to pick them up in one hand.
Pincer Grip Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers
Not only is the pincer grasp important for eating and playing, it is an essential stepping stone for writing. The more practice toddlers and preschoolers get to refine this skill, the more success they will have in the future with writing.
Check out these fun ways your child can practice spelling their name!
- Threading pipe cleaners through a colander is sure to keep your child busy for awhile.
- Eye droppers are an amazing tool to practice the pincer grasp.
- Cotton balls and a pair of kitchen tongs and your child will enjoy picking up snowballs.
- Who knew threading beads could be so much fun! In fact, threading anything is fun!
- Not only does this activity work on the pincer grasp but also on color matching. That’s a win, win!
- Playing with cards will definitely help your child refine their pincer grasp.Their are endless possibilities of activities with cards.
- Clothespins and a container is all you need to have fun with this activity! Super simple set up!
- Save up those squeeze pouch lids as your kids are going to love balancing marbles on them.
- What kid doesn’t like to use a hammer? They all do! Especially with golf tees!
- Making imprints in play dough is so cool! Especially when you use keys.
- Unwrapping presents is so exciting for kids and the bonus is, they are practicing their pincer grasp while doing it.
Simple fine motor activities are incredibly amazing practice for a child’s pincer grasp.
Threading activities are another great way to work on pincer grasp. We have a fun list of those to try. Threading is always fun for kids and you can usually make something out of it, so it’s very rewarding.
The more practice they get, the better!
Start your child at an early age working on their fine motor skills and they will be more successful with writing. (But please, don’t forget gross motor skills! Those big muscles need to work and move so they can fine tune the little muscles.)
Do you have any more pincer grasp activity ideas?
Share some with us. We’d love to hear about them.
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