Development of children’s fine motor skills

The level of fine motor skills, that is, the accuracy and dexterity of movements that are performed with the fingers and hands directly affect the development of the child in general and his speech in particular. It depends on how coordinated the three main systems — nervous, bone, and muscle, of the body, are.

The development of fine motor skills of the child helps to increase his level of speech proficiency, creates a favorable emotional background, teaches him to concentrate attention. This is the key to being ready for school and acquiring handwriting skills. All the movements that are made by our fingers contribute to the development of important mental functions – memory, attention, thinking.

Fine motor skills and speech in humans develop simultaneously: first, we master the subtle movements of our fingers, then we learn to pronounce words. In the future, the more dexterous our fingers become, the more our speech responses improve. From the biological point, this connection is because the motor and speech centers in the brain are located next to each other. If we start stimulating the first one, the second one automatically starts to activate.

As a parent, you can easily engage kids in two forms of finger exercises:

- Games in which the finger movements depend on the plot of the story. In this case, it is important to follow the correct sequence:

- Show your child the exercise.

- Let the child repeat the movements of the fingers, palms, and hands 1-2 times.

- Slowly play the whole story with him without words.

- Add words.

- Theatrical performances with finger puppets. These can be either ready-made stories (for example, fairytales that the child is already familiar with), or improvisations.