Activities for Fine Motor/In-Hand Manipulations Skills
Encourage children to weightbear on their hands when working on the floor to
increase arch and intrinsic muscle development of the hands. Also, place activities
on a vertical surface to increase wrist extension and shoulder stability.
Small objects (1/2”-1”) that are proportionate to the child’s hand develop mature
hand skills. Of course, these activities must be supervised for safety due to choking
hazards.
1. Playdough/theraputty: Rolling, playdough peas, cookie cutters/stamps,
hide and seek, cutting
Materials: rolling pin, small cookie cutters/stamps with wooden dowels as knobs,
small beads hidden in playdough, scissors
2. Clothespins: Matching letters, any curriculum based matching activity
Squeeze with thumb up and pad of index/middle finger while hiding 4th and 5th
digits in palm.
Target must be at or above eye level to promote thumb up position (supination)
and proximal stability (at shoulder).
Materials: Index cards on vertical surface, clothespins
3. Lite Bright (or make your own similar activity with Styrofoam board and
toothpicks on a vertical surface), encourage tripod grasp
4. Chalkboards on floor, wall, or easel
Materials: short pieces of chalk to facilitate tripod grasp; squirt bottle to clean
bards and promote hand separation
5. Magnadoodle on vertical surface or on floor
6. Water table: pouring from hands to promote pronation and supination, eye
droppers to promote tripod grasp, syringes to promote thumb opposition
7. Nuts and bolts (use real ones for more tactile and kinesthetic feedback)
8. Use a strawberry huller, pickler and/or tongs to pick up small objects by using
thumb, index and middle fingers to squeeze tongs
9. Use broken crayons on tripod easel while weightbearing with non-dominant hand
on easel
10. “Macaroni Drill”
Squirreling: picking up small objects one at a time and transferring them to the
palm
De-squirreling: transferring small objects from palm to finger tips one at a time
Materials: marbles, macaroni, etc. into hole in top of yogurt container
11. Peg Board on floor (small pegs with mushroom-like caps to facilitate tripod
grasp)
12. Straw connectors/K-Nex
13. Cutting straws and stringing on beads
*Elbows should be rest at their side, not on table, and not be stabilized against
their trunk and assist hand holding straw with palm side up
14. Large stencils on vertical surface (i.e. mirror with scented markers, on butcher
paper taped to wall, easel)
15. Scrap booking hole punchers (squeeze with thumb and index and middle fingers
with thumb up)
16. Lacing cards using thumb and index finger (pincer grasp)
17. Stringing ½” wooden beads using pincer grasp to hold string and beads
18. Small stamps using pincer grasp
Practice left to right progression, stamp on line for prewriting strokes, #s, letters,
maze
19. Wikki stiks on dry erase board on vertical surface (can be ordered online at
www.wikkistix.com)
20. Squiggle pen on vertical surface
21. Tactile bins (i.e. birdseed, rice, beans)
Cup media in hands, make it rain, feel n’find (child finds hidden objects in a bin f
beans)
22. Hungry Tennis ball: feed tennis ball with beans picked up with pincer grasp or
squirreling/desquirreling
Please contact me if you have any questions at katherine.hertel@fcps.edu. Have fun!!