Any parent understands the importance of child development. Gymnastics, massages, special toys and cards serve this purpose physically and intellectually. No less important for the baby is the development of his fine motor skills. When should you start working with your child?

The benefits of developmental activities

Fine motor skills of the fingers are necessary for us in everyday life, for writing and work. But the functionality of these vital skills does not end there. Physiologists have long proven the close connection between children’s ability to perform small actions with their hands and their speech.

The sooner and better the child develops his fine motor skills, the sooner and clearer he will speak.

This close connection comes from the adjacent location of motor and speech centers in humans. When a child actively uses his fingers, nerve impulses are transmitted to the corresponding part of the brain and affect the nearby area responsible for the ability to speak.

Activities that develop fine motor skills will be useful not only for the child’s speech. In eastern countries they believe that on the pads of each finger we have special areas, by stimulating which we can influence absolutely all systems of our body.

Thus, the development of fine motor skills cannot but have a beneficial effect on the health and development of the baby. When should you start working with your child? Experts believe that The development of baby's fingers should begin from the first days.

1. For your training to bear fruit, it must be done daily. It is not necessary to devote a lot of time to training - it is enough to start with 2-3 minutes while the child is in a good mood.
2. Be sure to praise your baby for his achievements and encourage him with hugs and kisses.
3. Make sure that the “props” are clean and sterile—babies in their first year of life tend to put everything in their mouth.
4. Use objects of different sizes and textures for activities - this is how the baby will learn to control his hands and begin to explore the world and the properties of the objects that surround him.

Development in the first 3 months

Activities can be devoted to the development of fine motor skills in 1-year-old children from the very first days. The sooner you start interacting with your baby and teaching him to pick up objects, the sooner he will be able to move on to manipulating small objects.

In the first three months, finger massage will be useful for the development of the baby’s arms.. It should be done at any convenient moment - during air baths, during short periods of wakefulness, or when the baby falls asleep.

• Gently stroke each of your newborn's fingers from palm to tip;
• Gently knead your child’s fingers, paying special attention to their tips;
• It will be useful to tickle the baby’s palms and fingers at those moments when he unclenches his fists;
• Gently unclench the baby's fists, stroke and bend the fingers again.

Such gymnastics will help to quickly relieve muscle tone in the baby’s arms, improve the formation of his tactile experience and prepare the child for further success.

Development up to 5 months

1. In the fourth month of life, children begin to control their hands better. During this period, it is important to actively use the grasping reflex that has not yet died out and “put” toys under the baby’s palms.
2. Now it is more convenient for the baby to grab a variety of rattles. Give them to him alternately in his hands - even short episodes of holding objects in the fist will be incredibly useful for the development of the baby. Gradually, the duration of the grip will increase, and the baby will study the rattle with interest.
3. It is important to select different toys for activities with the baby - so that they differ in material, shape and grip option. Give your child objects from different directions so that his palms and fingers learn to turn.
4. Useful for the development of motor skills in infants at this stage will be homemade “rosary beads” - buttons, large beads, wooden spools strung on a short cord, which the baby will finger in his fingers, enriching his tactile experience and stimulating the pads of his fingers.
5. Encourage the baby to reach out with his hands - to your face, to outstretched toys.
6. When you notice that the baby has begun to “use” both hands and is touching himself, you can put a sock or mitten on one of them. The baby will actively try to look at, touch and remove the new object from itself.
7. Continue finger massage to speed up the removal of muscle tone from your arms. You can play traditional games with your child (for example, “White-sided Magpie”) and straighten and bend the baby’s fingers to the rhythmic verses.

From 5 to 7 months

An infant is already actively interested in toys, explores them and holds them in his hands for a relatively long time. To continue the development of the baby at this stage, it is important to select only useful objects for the baby.

1. Toys with rings and beads that can be fingered are useful for children’s hands during this period. There is no need to spend money on expensive play centers or educational toys - you can make several sets of short beads with different stringed objects for your baby.
2. At this age, children like to press different kinds of buttons. Keyboard children's musical instruments, an old keyboard and interactive toys will be useful in the play area.
3. Continue to develop your baby tactilely - sew several bags from pieces of fabric that feel different to the touch, fill them with interesting contents - peas, beans, sand, buckwheat, pasta, semolina - sew them tightly and give them to the child.
4. You can sew additional bright buttons and ribbon bows onto the bags - it will be interesting and useful for the baby to feel them and try to tear them off.
5. Kids at this age not only get great pleasure from finger games, but also quite demandingly ask to work with them, so at every opportunity, repeat “Magpie White-sided” and “Finger Boy” with your little one.
6. Surround the baby on the play mat with objects of different sizes - by grabbing small and large cubes and balls, the baby will continue to actively develop the abilities of his hands.

From 7 to 9 months

The child’s “grasping” activity increases significantly from the second half of the year. He is interested in more and more new objects that he needs to touch, however, he gets bored with them quite quickly. Continue to develop your baby by inviting him to touch completely different objects - not only purchased expensive toys are suitable for this, but also absolutely any non-hazardous household items: new kitchen foam sponges, lids, clean food trays, clothespins, etc.

When playing with small objects, never leave your child alone.

Already, the baby’s arsenal is being replenished with new toys, with which he gradually learns to interact. You can buy the baby:

• a pyramid, which the baby will only disassemble for now;
• active developmental centers where you need to press, move, touch something;
• rubber squeakers that need to be squeezed in the palm of your hand;
• textile cubes;
• floating bath toys.

From 9 months to a year

During this period, the baby makes progress literally every day. Now he already has favorite activities and toys that can keep him busy for a while. The baby's fingers are already moving well enough to begin to master the necessary skills.

1. Offer your baby toys that require “calibration” when inserting them into each other (sets of cups, moulds).
2. The baby will be delighted with all sorts of boxes and containers that need to be opened. It will be good if, after lifting the lid, a pleasant surprise awaits the little one inside.
3. Containers with wide screw-on lids will also be useful for your baby’s motor skills and the development of his skills.
4. Introduce the “grabbing” technique into everyday games - roll a ball for your baby, ask him to give you an object, hide toys from him under the diaper and ask him to find the “lost item”. Such varied movements will be beneficial for the baby's hands.
5. By the age of one year, some children already have enough patience to work with large sorters - toys into which parts of different shapes must be inserted.
6. Bathroom games are also becoming more diverse. A child can catch small toys and put them in a basin, pour water from one container to another, etc. All these seemingly simple activities require a lot of concentration and dexterity from the baby.
7. A child can be alone for a long time, getting carried away with his games. But still, you should not leave the baby unattended - not only for safety reasons. You must be there to teach your child new ways to interact with surrounding objects and guide activities.
8. By the age of one year, children become interested in playing in the sandbox. If it’s not summer, you can arrange such activities at home - with sand or semolina. The baby is unlikely to be able to turn over the beads, but he is quite capable of filling them with his hands. For such games, you can cover the floor with oilcloth or play with loose materials at the table.

As you can see, in order to develop a baby’s motor skills, it is not at all necessary to purchase expensive specialized toys; everything you need for activities with your baby is always at home. Daily exercises, your care and love will help the child learn to control his arms and fingers, and also have a beneficial effect on the speech center.

The development of fine motor skills of the hands affects the baby’s intelligence, memory, attention and thinking. Therefore, every mother strives to start working with the baby as early as possible. Many parents think that only specialists in development centers can conduct such classes. Of course, you can take your child to group classes, but it’s easy to study at home by developing a system and lesson plan that will be interesting to the child in early and preschool age and aimed at developing motor activity.

What are fine motor skills

Fine motor skills are the coordinated actions of the hands and fingers, which are performed in conjunction with the nervous, skeletal, visual and muscular systems. In other words, it is the ability to manipulate small objects using only the small muscles of the body.

Do not confuse the concepts of fine and gross motor skills and sensory skills. They are interconnected, develop in the child’s body in parallel, but differ from each other:

• gross motor skills- these are the movements of large muscles of the body, the basis of the child’s physical development: walking, jumping, turning the body, running and other active actions;
• sensory- this is the perception of the surrounding world through sensations (tactile, visual, gustatory, auditory), thanks to which the child develops skills and preferences, he has an idea of ​​​​various objects, phenomena and actions.

A child's mind is at his fingertips.

V. A. Sukhomlinsky, teacher

This is not just a phrase, but a scientifically proven fact. It is at the fingertips that there are a huge number of nerve endings, through which impulses are sent to the brain, where the information is processed and supplemented with data from various receptors: visual, auditory, olfactory. And only then does the child perceive the whole picture, object or action. Teachers, together with famous scientists, have proven that by developing fine motor skills, a child quickly learns to speak, write, and think logically. Therefore, it is recommended to study with him from an early age.

Fine motor skills for speech and other skills development

1. The ability to control your hands is the basis for mastering the skills that a child needs in everyday life.
2. Fine motor skills are needed for the development of the most important mental processes: memory, perception of the surrounding world, thinking, logic, attention and speech.
3. The level of development of fine motor skills is one of the main indicators of a child’s readiness to learn at school.

Fine motor skills begin to develop from birth: first, the baby examines his hands, then learns to clench and unclench his fingers, control them in order to grab a toy or a nearby object. As he grows up, he understands how to hold a brush or pencil correctly, learns to draw, and closer to 6–7 years old he tries to write. Of course, the child will be able to study some points on his own, since all children are inquisitive and show interest in unfamiliar objects. However, scientists and teachers insist that parents engage with them through special toys and tasks, and perform exercises that help improve fine motor skills.

The development of intellectual and thinking processes begins with the development of movement of the arms, fingers and hands - this is a fact proven by scientists. Therefore, in order for a child’s brain to develop, it is necessary to train his hands. In addition, the rest of your life will require coordinated movements necessary for drawing, writing and performing many other activities.

Lack of development of fine motor skills can lead to the following consequences for the baby:

• lack of interest in drawing, modeling and other activities;
• difficulties with adaptation to the educational process at school: the child perceives new material worse, reads poorly, so the pace of learning seems too fast and difficult;
• insufficient development of creativity, thinking and attention;
• inability to draw a straight line or remember and write numbers or letters correctly;
• if you ask him to draw a picture, in most cases he cannot correctly place objects on the space of the sheet, he lacks imagination, there is no variety of colors and a clear plot;
• Such children begin to speak later; many have speech defects that are difficult to correct even during classes with specialists.

What does fine motor skills affect - video

Ways to develop fine motor skills that are relevant for children of different ages

In order for a child to develop harmoniously, it is necessary to work with him from birth, improving fine motor skills. Today there are many proprietary methods, educational toys and activities that are conducted in a playful way and help to learn new information through tactile sensations. Depending on the age and preferences of the baby, you can offer him:

• massage of hands and fingers;
• games with cereals, beads, buttons, pebbles;
• finger gymnastics;
• graphic exercises, shading;
• modeling from plasticine;
• collecting construction sets and mosaics;
• drawing and coloring;
• cutting with scissors;
• working with paper, folding origami, appliqués;
• games with string, lacing.

The importance of developing fine motor skills from an early age

Development of fine motor skills in children under one year old

Mom and dad can help their baby develop from birth. The following activities are suitable for children in the first year of life:

• massage of arms and legs;
• Finger paint.

Hand massage and massagers

Massage of hands, fingers and feet is very useful for children under one year old.. Parents can do it at any time of the day without time limits. The main rule: the baby should like the exercises. If the baby feels discomfort, begins to be capricious and removes his arms or legs, it is better to postpone classes for a while.

1. Gently stretch your baby's fingers: the exercise should be done slowly and gently, no sudden movements. Then each finger needs to be stroked. These actions can be carried out with children two months and older.
2. Make circular movements with your fingers in one direction, then in the other. The exercise is done with each finger separately.
3. From 5 months, you can easily massage each of the baby’s fingers, then the palm and smoothly move on to the hand. In addition to the development of fine motor skills, there is also a general strengthening of the muscles of the baby’s upper limbs.
4. At 8 months, it’s time to start more active exercises: tap your finger on the baby’s palm, press lightly, bend and straighten your fingers. These actions can be done simultaneously with reciting the poems “The White-sided Magpie”, “The Horned Goat Walked”. The same thing is repeated with the baby’s legs.

It is very useful to use special exercise machines or massagers. They come in the form of a soft ball with an uneven surface, a roller or a ring that is placed on the finger. Or you can use available materials: roll a walnut in your hands, sew bags from natural fabrics and pour various cereals into them. Give them to your child periodically - this is an excellent massage and stimulation of nerve endings.

You can perform exercises with a massager in different ways by rolling it:

• on the table;
• between the palms;
• from fingertips to elbow;
• on the back of the hand.

The main thing to remember is that you need to practice with both upper limbs in turn. Some parents mistakenly believe that if they pay attention only to the right hand, their child will not be left-handed. This is an incorrect statement. For the harmonious development of the baby, both hands should be developed equally.

Exercise machines and massagers for developing fine motor skills - photo gallery

You can use a nut to massage your hands. A ball-shaped hand massager. This finger trainer can be used when a child has learned to sit. Massagers can be of different types and shapes.

Finger paint

Children love to draw. You shouldn’t think that you can’t teach them to be creative before the age of 1–1.5 years, when they can pick up a brush or pencil. Today, finger paints, made from natural ingredients and safe even if swallowed, are very popular. Hand drawing is an ideal option for developing fine motor skills in infants. The child not only feels all the movements with his fingers, but also perceives the colors of paints and learns to recognize them. In this case, sensory thinking also develops.

Painting with finger paints - video

Current methods for developing motor skills in children aged 1 to 2 years

At one year old, the child sits confidently, and perhaps already walks. Now he is more interested in educational toys, books and other objects around him. At this age, sensory perception is important for him, so you can include the following activities:

• finger games, massage of arms and hands;
• finger paints, painting with gouache using a brush (children begin painting with watercolors from the age of three);
• modeling: it is still difficult for small children to sculpt from plasticine, so the best option is dough;
• sorters and pyramids, soft puzzles - all this wonderfully develops fine motor skills;
• busy boards, games with lids - the child’s interest and the parents’ imagination are important here.

Toys and activities for young children - photo gallery

Modeling dough is softer than plasticine, so it is more suitable for children aged 1–2 years. With the help of a pyramid, you can practice coordination of movements. The sorter perfectly develops fine motor skills. With plastic lids, you can come up with a wide variety of games.

Educational games for children 1–2 years old - video

Tasks for kids 2–3 years old

At 2–3 years old, a child learns and masters skills very quickly. Children can already explain what they want to do, what interests them at the moment. At this age, the development of fine motor skills primarily contributes to the development of speech. Every day the baby pronounces more and more new words, learns to perceive and copy sounds, begins to speak in whole sentences, so it is extremely important to work with him during this period. The activities are not fundamentally different from those that the baby was interested in at 1–2 years old. But they can be complicated and new ones can be added:

• stringing: invite your child to collect beautiful beads for mom, or distribute shapes of the same color on a string;
• Children of this age really like games with lacing;
• building a tower: the baby learns to coordinate movements, distributes the cubes evenly so that they do not fall;
• modeling crafts from plasticine: this modeling material is more complex than dough, and the child needs to put more effort into working with it;
• activities with cereals: invite your child to choose one cereal from the container and leave another in it;
• games with water: the child catches various objects from a container using a spoon or net.

Games with cereals, water, plasticine, cubes and other activities for children 2–3 years old - photo gallery

Building with blocks develops coordination of movements. It is interesting for a child to correctly lace a model of a shoe or fasten the buttons on a doll’s coat. Stringing develops logic and patience. Modeling from plasticine is a more complex activity than modeling from dough. Playing with water captivates children of all ages.

Games for developing fine motor skills for children 2–3 years old - video

Development of fine motor skills with children of kindergarten age (4–5 years old)

At 4–5 years old, a child prefers to complete many tasks independently. He is interested in how the development board works, why the wheels spin and much more. Curiosity and a desire to learn new things only contribute to the harmonious development of the individual. The baby is already good with a brush and pencil, so the main tasks are aimed at preparing his hand for writing. Many parents think it's too early for this age. Don’t be confused, at 4 years old no one forces a baby to write whole words or letters if he doesn’t show interest. It’s worth adding new ones to the exercises and activities described above:

• playing with sand, or sand therapy, as psychologists often call these exercises: let the child run his fingers through the sand, drawing pictures or objects;
• working with scissors: first the child learns to cut even strips, then geometric shapes;
• applique: the child will learn to create compositions on a paper plane, work with glue and napkin;
• drawing, coloring small details, shading - these skills prepare the baby's hand for writing.

Drawing, appliqué, shading and other activities for a child 4–5 years old - photo gallery

At the age of 4–5 years, purchase special children's scissors with round edges. Appliqués will teach the child to be neat. Playing with sand calms the child and is very useful for the development of motor skills. Hatching prepares the child's hand for writing.

Exercises for developing fine motor skills in children 4–5 years old

Fine motor skills for preschoolers 6–7 years old

At 6–7 years old, a child goes to school, so he must be morally and intellectually prepared for the new stage of his life. Lessons require discipline, quick acquisition and understanding of new material, and the ability to remember and repeat tasks well. At this age, all exercises are aimed at developing speech, writing, and reading skills. That is why parents should pay special attention to improving fine motor skills. Insufficient development in this area leads in most cases to learning problems: the child cannot write or does it very slowly, his creative skills, imagination and thinking are poorly developed.

The following activities will help prepare your child for school:

• physical exercises: finger gymnastics, hand massagers, finger games, finger theater;
• mosaic: small parts that need to be assembled correctly according to instructions - a great way to develop little fingers;
• construction set: at this age, the large cubes familiar to the baby are replaced with smaller parts, with the help of which not only fine motor skills develop, but also imagination;
• Copybooks: you can circle not only letters or numbers, but also different shapes that may interest the child.

Motor skills development activities for preschoolers - photo gallery

Assembling a mosaic according to a pattern will help improve the fine motor skills of a preschooler’s hands. Constructors made from small parts are very captivating for preschoolers. The finger theater helps strengthen the muscles of the hand and fingers.

About the importance of developing fine motor skills in preschool children - video

How to develop fine motor skills in left-handed children and toddlers with visual impairments

Studies conducted by scientists have shown that many left-handed children have problems with the development of speech, writing and reading, so it is very important to engage them in exercises to develop fine motor skills. Parents of a child who actively uses his left hand rather than his right hand need to take into account some nuances during classes.

1. The light source during exercises should be on the right side.
2. Left-handed children do not visually perceive the space that is to their left, so all objects need to be placed to the right.
3. Classes should be carried out with breaks. This is important for a left-handed child; he needs more rest, so try to plan the exercises so as to take a break every 20 minutes.
4. While writing, the child often pushes his left shoulder forward - this is the norm for children who hold a pen in their left hand; you should not deliberately change his position.
5. The main thing is not to emphasize that the baby is somehow different from other children. He should feel the support of parents and teachers.

Today, preschoolers are often diagnosed with problems with visual perception. There may be many reasons why a child has poor vision, but such children should develop on an equal basis with their peers. Very often they cannot perform actions with their hands and do not understand what to do. That is why they need to develop fine motor skills from an early age. However, it is better to start exercises from the age of two: the baby will already understand what you want from him and will not be afraid.

1. Massage and finger exercises are required: tapping, stroking, playing with massagers - all this should be in the lesson program.
2. All classes are aimed at learning information through tactile sensations, so the child is offered objects made of different materials, of different shapes, which he touches, remembers and tries to describe his feelings.
3. Visually impaired children learn to read using a relief-dot code, so parents prepare the child to perceive and understand this form: you can use foil on which lines, waves, dots and other shapes are drawn. He traces the raised patterns with his fingers, tries to understand and remember them.
4. At an older age, a child can draw figures or pictures himself, and then read them by touch.

You should not think that if a child has poor eyesight or there is a delay in speech development, then classes with him do not make sense. In most cases, regular exercises to develop fine motor skills help the child catch up with his peers and adapt to new information.

Diagnostics of the level of development of fine motor skills of children at different ages

Every day the child grows and develops. At a certain age, he must be able to perform various tasks. In order to assess the baby’s progress, diagnostics are carried out. First of all, they look at how developed his fine motor skills are. There are special tasks, as the teacher or psychologist completes them, determines the level of proficiency in hand motor skills. For each age, the difficulty of such exercises is different. As a rule, children begin to be diagnosed at the age of three.

1. Exercises for 3–4 years old.
   1. Collect the coins in a box. The baby is offered a small box and twenty coins are placed around it in a chaotic manner. On a signal, he must collect all of them into a box as quickly as possible. The task must be completed first with one hand, then with the other. Normally, a child adds up all the pennies with the active hand in 15 seconds, and with the other in 20 seconds.
   2. Drawing in the air. The child must draw circles in the air of approximately the same size with his fingers for ten seconds, with one hand moving clockwise and the other counterclockwise. If the baby rotates his fingers in one direction, or the circles are very different in size, the task is considered uncompleted.
   3. Draw a circle, horizontal and vertical lines on paper.
   4. Exercises with lacing and buttons: the child must lace the shoe model, unbutton and fasten the buttons.
2. Exercises for 4–5 years old.
   1. Ring. You need to connect your index and thumb in the form of a circle, and raise the rest up. The child is asked to hold his fingers in this position for 10 seconds.
   2. They check how the child can draw straight, curved lines, and waves.
   3. Cutting with scissors: the child should be able to cut simple geometric shapes along the contour.
   4. Fold the sheet in half: the baby should fold the A4 sheet of paper as evenly as possible.
3. Exercises for 5–7 years old.
   1. Draw straight, broken, wavy lines. Draw a person.
   2. On each hand, alternately extend the index finger and little finger at the same time, hold them in this position for five seconds.
   3. Cut a circle out of the square.
   4. Ask the child to salt the soup, so that the child slowly rubs the pieces of salt between his fingers.

If, as a result of the diagnosis, a lag in the development of motor activity of the hands is discovered, this information should not be ignored: you need to select tasks and work intensively with the child on the development of fingers.

Card index of exercises and games for the development of fine motor skills

The development of fine motor skills is best done in a playful way. This way the child will be interested in the process, and the time spent in classes will increase significantly. Many parents ask a completely logical question: how to choose the necessary and most effective ones from so many existing exercises and tasks. The answer is simple: it all depends on the interests of the child. Some children prefer construction sets, others prefer drawing, so parents can create a list of activities and exercises depending on the child’s preferences.

Finger exercises, self-massage and exercises with a pencil

For children from a very early age and preschoolers, finger exercises and self-massage are important. There are about one thousand biological points on the palms that regulate the functioning of human organs. Gymnastics for fingers is carried out simultaneously with rhymes, which are so interesting to children.

Finger gymnastics on the table:

• freely patting the brushes on the table alternately and simultaneously;
• freely tapping your fingers on the table with both hands and alternately;
• alternately raising and lowering the fingers (the hands lie on the table) of the right and left hands, then both at the same time;
• imitation of playing the piano.

Exercises for finger gymnastics, self-massage and exercises with a pencil and ball - photo gallery

Exercises for finger gymnastics No. 1 Exercises for finger gymnastics No. 2 Exercises for finger gymnastics No. 3 Exercises with pencils Light finger massage Self-massage with balls Massage of fingers with a special massager Playing with a ball to warm up fingers Developing fine motor skills with a ball Ball games with rhymes

Self-massage of fingers and hands - video

Finger games

In between classes, preschoolers have finger games. They are accompanied by poems and proverbs, which the child easily remembers and can play with his fingers independently at any time. Such breaks provide an opportunity to rest and stretch your hands, and then begin new tasks.

Finger games help:

• develop speech skills and improve them during the game;
• learn to listen to the teacher or parents and repeat after them;
• stimulate the development of creative abilities, because the child imagines his hands in the form of animals, plants or certain natural phenomena;
• train manual dexterity and flexibility;
• concentrate attention;
• train memory (the child remembers rhymes and finger actions while pronouncing them);
• establish contact between children and adults.

There are many videos on the Internet with examples of finger games. But, in addition, you can buy books with descriptions of actions, cards with rhymes and explanations in stores for children.

Rhymes and finger games - photo gallery

Finger game “Swan” Finger game “Snail” Set of cards “Learn while playing!” Book "Finger games"

Playing with fingers - video

Development of motor skills with the help of sensory bags, busy boards, sorters, lacing, Lego cubes, finger theater and others

Activities with educational toys are very useful for fine motor skills. For children from one to three years old, busy boards are interesting, which can be soft or hard, in the form of a board. With their help, the child develops thinking, logic, attentiveness, intelligence, remembers colors, studies letters and numbers, objects and various animals.

Young children perceive information not only visually, but also through tactile sensations. Parents can offer them sensory bags filled with different materials. These can be cereals, small or large objects, toys, balls, construction parts.

Today, many children prefer to play with construction sets, lacing, or sorters. They are interesting not only for kids, because here you can use your imagination and have fun. At an early age, offer your child a sorter: let him try to pick up shapes that fit the holes. Then get him interested in a construction set, the parts of which will become smaller as he gets older, and the tasks will become more complex.

Many toys can be made with your own hands, for example, a busy board, a soft book, sensory bags, lacing, a sorter, and the filling with parts can be done depending on the preferences and interests of the baby. But it’s better to buy a ready-made construction set in a store; you won’t be able to make it at home.

Toys for developing fine motor skills - photo gallery

A soft book-shaped board is designed for the youngest children. A large developmental board is interesting for children of all ages. Transparent bags for the development of fine motor skills. Educational bags for the development of fine motor skills are easy to make with your own hands. Unusual sensory bags in the shape of birds. Learning to string objects on a rope. Developing fine motor skills with lacing.

Examples of finger theater - video

Special games with cereals, clothespins, rubber bands, mats, winders, finger tracks

In addition to classic busy boards, lacing, pyramids, sorters and other toys, there are many other options for playing with children.

All mothers have heard about the importance of developing fine motor skills in children, but not everyone understands what it is and what manipulations need to be done in order for the child to develop normally. In this article we will look at the features of the development of fine motor skills in children, as well as the main methods of development in the form of exercises and games.

Fine motor skills: what is it?

Fine motor skills are the ability to reproduce precise movements of the hands and fingers to perform both simple and more complex tasks necessary in everyday life. Fine motor skills are not only about simple movements and gestures, but also include skills such as writing and drawing, which take quite a long time to learn.

The process of developing fine motor skills begins immediately after birth. Initially, the baby peers at his hands for a long time, over time tries to understand what they are for, and gradually tries to control them.

The baby begins to try to grab objects and hold them with his palm, mastering his fingers over time. The connection between fine motor skills and the baby’s nervous system is highlighted; the development of skills is associated with vision, memory, attention and perception.

Did you know? Scientists have proven the fact that the development of fine motor skills and speech is dependent. There is a very simple explanation for this. The centers responsible for speech and motor skills are located very close to each other in the baby’s brain, therefore, when the motor center is constantly stimulated, the speech center also becomes active.

Therefore, the benefit of developing motor skills is the rapid development of speech. If you develop motor skills from early childhood, this will later affect your dexterity, handwriting accuracy and reaction speed.

The extent to which efforts were made to develop fine motor skills in childhood will allow us to form a general opinion about how ready the child is for school, how developed his logical thinking is, how he remembers information, whether he can concentrate, speak correctly and clearly.

Features of the development of fine motor skills in children

Each period of a child’s life, from 1 year to 5 years, has its own characteristic features of the development of fine motor skills. In order to understand whether the development process is happening correctly and the need to adjust skills, it is recommended to pay attention to the approximate norms for each age.

Up to 1 year

During the period up to 4 months, the baby tries to learn to cope with hand movements, reach for objects that are interesting to him, and can move his thumb 90 degrees. At this age, the child has equal control of both the right and left hand.

A child may have a pronounced reflex of grasping something with his hand, but this process occurs unconsciously. Starting at one year of age, the baby begins to better control his hands.

Previously complex tasks that required both hands are now easier for him, requiring only one hand to complete them. For example, he can already quite consciously grab a toy with one hand, and the older the child gets, the smaller toys attract him.

Important! By the age of one, the risk of airway obstruction increases significantly, as the child tries to try everything “to the teeth”, and small details are of particular interest to him.

At the age of 1 year, babies can move toys from hand to hand, kick a ball, and try to turn pages in a book.

Up to 2 years

A child at this age only needs his hands to play, since he no longer needs to hold on to them in order to sit up straight, or to hold onto a support while walking. Up to 1.5 years, children also use both hands equally, and closer to two years they determine their dominant one.

The child can move his fingers quite well; he tries to pop bubbles with his thumb, he draws, grasping a pencil with his whole hand, and he can pick up a cube from above with five fingers. By the age of two, the baby develops an interest in drawing, but he mostly draws circles; over time, he begins to develop vertical and horizontal lines.

Up to 3 years

In this period of the baby’s life, the child already has good control of the body and the movements performed, actively uses the hand and fingers to perform the necessary tasks, the latter become even more obedient. The child no longer uses five, but three fingers to grasp the cube.

After the age of two, the manner of drawing changes, he holds the pencil perpendicular to the sheet, he is good at drawing circles, lines, and tries to put some kind of design out of them.

By the age of three, a child can already use scissors and cut a sheet of paper into several pieces. Playing in the sand is of great interest to the baby; he is already able to carefully pour it into a bucket and make Easter cakes.

Up to 4 years

At this age, the baby uses both hands when working, for example, the main one draws, the auxiliary one holds the leaf. The kid tries to draw more complex drawings, he can redraw the simplest figures that he saw in a book, he gets almost straight vertical and horizontal lines.
He manages to cope better with scissors - cutting along drawn lines. The kid can build small towers from 3-5 cubes. During this period, the child already confidently uses his fingers and can pick up a small crumb or bead from the table with his index finger and thumb.

Up to 5 years

The necessary movements are carried out exclusively with a brush, the child paints pictures perfectly, does not go beyond the outline, the child uses scissors quite confidently, and can easily cut out simple geometric shapes.

By the age of 5, the child already confidently holds a pencil, like an adult - with three fingers, this is a sign of readiness to master writing skills, the drawings become more understandable, the child is already quite good at drawing people, trees, clouds, the sun and other simple elements.

Construction sets and puzzles occupy a special place at this age. If earlier it was not entirely possible to combine elements into one picture, by the age of five a child can already put together a small picture on his own.

How to develop fine motor skills: exercises and games

To develop fine motor skills, special exercises and games were invented for children of different ages; let’s look at them in more detail.

Young children cannot do exercises on their own or play games to develop fine motor skills, so they are recommended to massage their palms and fingers.

1. Initially, massage each finger, starting with the little finger. Make movements from fingertip to palm, carefully massaging each joint.
2. Then pay attention to your fingertips and massage, lightly pressing each pad.
3. Next, massage the palms using circular movements of the index finger.
4. After this, the baby’s palm must be placed in your hand and with your thumb make light pressing movements in the center of the baby’s palm.
5. To perform the following massage movements, you must use a ring spiral massager. It is placed on the tip of the baby's finger and moves up and down. This is done with each finger.
6. To perform the final stage, massage brushes are used, which are passed over the child’s palms.

Game "Ladushki"

An old but still popular children's game is “Ladushki”. This fascinating nursery rhyme is used during the game of clapping, which allows you to teach kids to hold their fingers straight and clap their palms, thereby developing fine motor skills.

Playing Ladushki is quite simple. During the game you need to say: Okay, okay! (straighten the baby’s fingers) Where were you? (connect the child’s palms with a light clap) At grandma’s! (separate palms) What did you eat? (make a light clap with your palms) Porridge! (separate palms) What did you drink? (light clap of hands again) Brazhka! (separate your palms) Let's fly, fly, fly, (now make movements with the baby's hands, imitating flapping of wings) Sit on the head! (with your baby’s open palms, touch his head)

After a year, your baby can be taught to turn pages in books and magazines. For this purpose, choose books with dense pages to make the leafing process easier for inexperienced children's hands.
Thanks to such exercises, the baby tries to use two fingers (thumb and index), connecting which leads to good development of fine motor skills.

For older children, you can offer a game of construction toys. This game is suitable for children aged 2 years and older; the construction set differs in the size of the elements, the presence of additional parts and figures. When choosing a construction set for the little ones, you need to pay attention to the fact that the elements are easy to connect and separate, and that their size is large.

Older children, on the contrary, are interested in collecting smaller parts; very popular and interesting are sets of a certain theme, created based on cartoons or fairy tales, with the presence of colorful figures and decorative elements.

The presence of many elements in the construction set that need to be connected to each other, creating a variety of compositions, perfectly develops the child’s fine motor skills, allows them to develop memory, spatial vision, abstract and figurative thinking.

You can sculpt from plasticine from the age of 2 years. For this purpose, there are many types of children's plasticine on sale, varying in composition, price and age category. For the little ones, you can buy plasticine dough, which is harmless to health even if swallowed. To save money, you can make homemade plasticine from salt dough.

To prepare it you need to use:

• cold water - 1 glass;
• salt - 1 glass;
• vegetable oil - 2 tsp;
• food coloring - on the tip of the knife;
• flour - 3 cups;
• corn starch - 2 tbsp. l.

Cooking process:

1. In a deep bowl, mix the liquid ingredients and salt until smooth.
2. Gradually adding starch and flour, bring the mixture to a thick consistency suitable for modeling.

Store the finished dough in a tightly closed container. Modeling trains fine motor skills well, thanks to the fact that the baby learns to pinch off small pieces of plasticine, roll them into balls, tubes, and connect them together. In this way, both fingers and palms are maximally trained and stressed.

Kinetic sand

Kinetic sand is a modern and quite popular means for developing a child’s fine motor skills. It is a mass reminiscent of wet river sand, which allows you to sculpt Easter cakes and build castles or roll them into balls and flagella, like ordinary plasticine.

Kinetic sand is considered an environmentally friendly and safe material; it is very pleasant to the touch and is easy for even the smallest children to work with.

Did you know? Kinetic sand is a modern invention, it was first produced in Sweden, the product went on sale in 2013 and turned out to be so popular that after 3 months they paid attention to it and began purchasing children’s goods stores abroad.

You can draw to develop fine motor skills starting at an early age. For little ones, there are special safe finger paints that you can use to decorate drawings or create masterpieces yourself.

There is also a wide range of coloring books on sale, where individual elements of the design are drawn with finger paints, which is very good for developing fingers and palms.

Older children can color pictures with pencils, felt-tip pens or paints. In order to color a picture without going beyond the outline of the picture, you need to make a lot of effort, while simultaneously training fine motor skills.

Bead game

Beads of different sizes and shapes will definitely interest a child, especially children under 2 years old. You can put the beads around your neck, this way it will be even more interesting for the baby, and by fingering each bead with your fingers, fine motor skills will develop.

Older children can be encouraged to make their own beads. To do this, prepare your child with homemade or purchased beads and a thread on which the child will string them. You can lay out paths from beads, glue them to paper, create pictures, which will not only develop fine motor skills, but also imagination.

Games with cereals

Games with cereals are very good for developing fine motor skills. As the main component of the game, you can use any cereal that is in the house; it is advisable to use several types so that the child can feel with his fingers the different shapes and sizes of grains and grains.

Important! When playing with cereals, a child may try the grains out of curiosity or even put them in his nose, so be especially careful and watch your baby while playing.

You can play different games with cereal. Small children can be asked to pour cereal from one palm to another, hide a small toy in a container with cereal so that the child can find it, sprinkle small cereal in an even dense layer on the table and draw with their fingers.

Older children can be asked to make an applique from different cereals; connect several cereals together and offer to sort each cereal into a separate bowl.

Children from 2 years old can assemble mosaics; they are offered games with large elements that cannot be swallowed, and it is convenient for the baby to hold them in his hand. Mosaics allow you to train not only fine motor skills, but also imagination when the baby strives to create some kind of picture with the help of his parents.

Children over 3 years old are offered mosaics with smaller elements, which allow them to create large compositions.

Finger games

Finger play refers to the dramatization of a rhymed story or fairy tale using the fingers. Children as young as 1 year old can start playing finger games using only one hand; 2-year-old children can repeat the movements of their parent’s hand.

From the age of 3, you can involve both of the baby’s hands in the game and gradually complicate the task by teaching how to replace one hand movement with another.

Such games develop fine motor skills well and prepare the child’s hands and fingers for writing and drawing. The hands become more mobile, flexible, and stiffness disappears, which in the future will become a good basis in the process of learning to write.

Screwing the lids

A great activity for developing fine motor skills is twisting and unscrewing lids. As a rule, babies really like to play with bottles, so teach your child how to spin and twist bottles.

Video: game “screw the lid” To make it easy for your child to complete the task, provide them with small bottles with small caps that fit in a small hand.

It is necessary to start developing children's motor skills from an early age. As soon as the baby begins to hold objects in his hands, it is recommended to offer him toys of different shapes and textures.

If the proposed games or exercises do not arouse the child’s interest, they can always be replaced with other more interesting developmental activities. If your child doesn’t like the games you offer, you can always find more colorful and interesting options in the store, or show your imagination and make just as good toys yourself.

It is also recommended not to leave the child alone with the game; tell him what to do and how to do it, explain, support if something doesn’t work out, and get him interested. If you show your child how fun it is to play with you, he will soon show interest in the game.

Video: Ideas for developing fine motor skills

Important! If you offer your child any game purchased in a store, be sure to look at the age restrictions that are indicated on the packaging in order to exclude the possibility of swallowing some elements or other life-threatening situations for the baby.

Thus, special attention should be paid to the development of fine motor skills in children and activities should begin with the baby from an early age. There are many games, exercises and other fun activities that can be chosen according to the age, preferences and capabilities of the baby.

The development of children's motor skills is a long-term process that directly correlates with the “maturation” of the cerebral cortex.

general information

Motor skills- this is a set of voluntary and sequential movements, as a result of which it is possible to perform a specific task (for example, sit down, step, clench a fist). Of course, for adults this activity does not pose any difficulty, because over the years of life there has been enough “training”, and the moments when they just began to acquire these, at first glance, elementary skills are unlikely to be imprinted in their memory.

The following types of motor skills should be distinguished:

• large– focused on “automatic” movements of certain muscle groups;
• small– concerns the precise movements of the hand, as well as processes in which it is necessary to coordinate the work of the eyes and upper limbs.

information As we mentioned above, the development of fine and gross motor skills in children is closely related to the appearance of interneuron connections in the brain and its development.

This means that at birth the baby’s central nervous system is immature - he can only move his arms and legs aimlessly, and cannot even concentrate his gaze on a large object.

But given the fact that development processes are inversely proportional to the child’s age, by the first month the child’s motor skills are progressing noticeably.

Gross motor skills in children

During a monthly physical, the doctor evaluates the development of children's gross and fine motor skills. Further, these checks become less frequent, but still remain no less important, because each new achievement, the sequence of which is generally predetermined, tells us that the child is developing in accordance with age, and the central nervous system, as well as muscles and bones - the joint apparatus is in order.

Age	Gross motor skills
0-2 months	The child begins to turn his head while lying on his back, and the movements of his arms and legs become more conscious.
3-5 months	The baby is able to control his head better and better, and he will even be able to lift it and his shoulders from the “lying on his stomach” position. Also now they can put their hands together, but it’s still too early to start playing pats.
6-8 months	At this age, the baby will grab with his hands and pull himself up in such a way as to sit up from a lying position on his back. Well, having reached 8 months, he will already be able to sit without assistance. Also, soon the child will be able to sit up from the “lying on his stomach” position.
9-11 months	The period during which the baby actively begins to explore the world around him. After all, now he crawls perfectly and gets to his feet, holding on to furniture.
12-14 months	The child grows up very quickly, and already on his first birthday, he may be ready to step out on his own. Of course, it looks ridiculous - legs spread wide apart, arms stretched out in front of you. But this is just the beginning. Closer to 14 months, your child will climb onto low chairs, armchairs and lift various objects from the floor.
15-17 months	In addition to the fact that the child will already be able to walk well, he will be able to confidently back away and step left and right. Playing ball will also be of great interest - after all, the development of motor skills reaches the level when the child can kick objects.
18-20 months	Carefully, holding hands, the little one will go down and up the stairs for the first time. There will be first attempts to run and jump.
21-23 months	Running and jumping become commonplace, the child is now ready to “saddle” a tricycle and also sit confidently at the table.
2 years	The baby learns to balance - he is interested in walking along the curb, he tries very hard to hold on. Now he runs great, practically does not fall and jumps down.
3 years	At this age, the child goes down the stairs in the manner of adults - alternating between the left and right legs.
4 years	By this age, a child moves very confidently - he is even able to stand on one leg for 10 seconds, catch a ball and ride a bicycle very confidently.
5 years	By this age, once difficult tasks become completely mundane. Sitting, running, jumping - all this is done with ease and ease. In addition, you can now easily jump over obstacles and distinguish between left and right.

Development of fine motor skills in children

It is believed that the development of fine motor skills in children is the foundation of the child’s future abilities and talents. The thing is that the centers that are responsible for it are very close to the areas of attention, thinking, coordination, imagination, observation, visual and motor memory and speech. There is also a close connection between the development of fine motor skills and speech. This is a scientifically proven fact, so try to pay as much attention to this chapter as possible.

The development of fine motor skills is also closely related to the child’s future life - after all, coordinated movements of the fingers and hands will be necessary in order to perform some actions integral to life:

• fasten buttons;
• write;
• draw, etc.

important Games for the development of fine motor skills have a very important role, because through games the child remembers the sequence of movements, learns to coordinate, and together with jokes they are wonderful “coaches” for speech development.

Thus, one can reap enormous benefits with minimal investment.

The main thing to remember is that the development of fine motor skills in children follows a certain pattern. That is, the child gradually learns to perform simple tasks, and based on them learns new ones. Don't be discouraged if your baby doesn't grasp them right away - maybe you need to take a step back and try something easier.

Calendar for the development of fine motor skills in a child

The following is a description of the basic fine motor activities that children can typically perform at a given age.

0-4 months

During this period, the child learns to move his legs and arms in such a way as to reach a toy or other object that has become interesting to him. Control over the right and left hands is the same. Babies also learn to coordinate head and eye movements. For example, at this age the child turns his head when he hears his mother’s voice. In addition, the baby can grab the toy, but this action is reflective and not conscious.

4-12 months

During this period, the baby gains greater control over his arms. Now, with only one hand, he can perform actions that previously required the use of both. The child grabs the toy quite consciously, and from 6 months the size of the object that your baby takes decreases. Closer to one year, the risk of airway obstruction increases - after all, at this age a child is able to pick up even the smallest thing.

In addition, children in this age range learn to transfer an object from one hand to another, as well as turn pages in their favorite books and kick a ball.

1-2 years

The child already has good balance when sitting, and he no longer uses his arms to help himself with this. That's why he uses them for games. At this age, children also use their right and left hands with equal success, but closer to two years the child is determined to be dominant.

Finger movements are becoming more and more confident. The baby will use his index finger to pop the bubble, but still holds the pencil with his whole hand. Until 24 months, he draws only circles, and by two years he is capable of horizontal and vertical lines.

2-3 years

During this period of development, balance, coordination, and trunk control provide greater use of the arms and fingers. The movements now mainly use the hand and forearm.

After two years, the child changes his drawing style. Now he holds the pencil as if pointing at a piece of paper. Closer to three years, the child draws lines and circles well, and little by little creates various designs with their help. Also, at 36 months, the child should be able to cut a sheet of paper into 2 parts (not in a straight line, of course).

3-4 years

The child uses both hands well for work - one dominant, with which, for example, he holds a pencil, and the other as an auxiliary one - with which he fixes a piece of paper. The drawings become more complex, the baby tries to copy figures from books and coloring books. By age four, he can hold a pen or pencil with three fingers, in the same way as adults. It is believed that your child is now ready to master basic writing skills. He also uses scissors much more skillfully: he cuts along the drawn line.

4-5 years

At this age, the development of finger motor skills reaches such a level that the baby performs the necessary movements only with the hand, without using the forearm and shoulder (unless required).

The child can already color well without going beyond the outline. Cutting a square is also not very difficult.

5-6 years

Hand movements are well coordinated and harmonious. The pen should be held confidently with three fingers, and the scissors should be held in the manner of adults. Small details are taken into account during coloring. Adequate development of fine motor skills in preschoolers is a ticket to productive further education in the first grade, so pay enough attention to your child and make sure that he corresponds to the growing up calendar.

Fine motor skills exercises

1. Finger motor exercises- games “Hello, little finger!”, “Who has arrived?” Use your imagination and dramatize. You can arrange a whole theater.
2. Use plasticine– roll the balls, ask the child to make you something specific. Always start with the simplest and gradually introduce smaller details.
3. Tear paper into small pieces. The smaller the pieces, the higher the development of fine motor skills in the baby.
4. Sort through beads, rosaries, and other small items. Choose different shapes, sizes and textures, so you will develop your child’s sense of touch.
5. Tie knots and then untie them, fasten buttons. Always follow the principle “from big to small”.

Toys for developing fine motor skills in children

There are a huge number of different objects that can help develop fine motor skills. First, let's note the fact that you can use anything for games.

Even dry peas and beans can become the subject of development. For example, mix different types of legumes and ask your child to sort. Of course, this is not recommended for children under 3 years old, but if your child has crossed this threshold, playing Cinderella will come in handy.

You can also play Guessing Game with your baby.. The rules are very simple: blindfold the child, and take turns giving him familiar objects. Ask them to describe them, and then ask them to guess.

Stationery and art kits are great toys for developing fine motor skills. Pencils, felt-tip pens, children's scissors, coloring books - all this gives room for imagination.

Mosaic is a wonderful addition. There are different types and sizes for children of all ages. Gradually you can move on to puzzles. They develop logic, thinking, imagination, and, of course, motor skills.

Glove dolls- also a wonderful opportunity to contribute to the multifaceted development of your child. They can be used from a very early age, but in this case the game will, of course, be played by an adult. Over time, you can transfer the initiative into the hands of the child. Act out familiar stories, and when no problems arise with them, you can invent your own.

Development of fine motor skills in children: myths and truth about finger games, how to properly conduct finger gymnastics and finger games with preschoolers, exercises for the development of fine motor skills, hand and finger massage for the little ones.

Games and exercises for developing fine motor skills especially needed by modern children. After all, now kids, unfortunately, do little training in the movements of their fingers: on clothes and shoes there are Velcro instead of buttons or laces (this is more convenient and faster for us adults), there are buttons in games, few children embroider, sew or knit, saw out or burns, helps mom sort out cereals, wipe off dust, wash toys or wash doll accessories. This change in the life situation of the development of preschool children was also reflected in the development of fine motor skills of the hand, which previously developed in everyday life, imperceptibly, without special training. Now the development of fine motor skills has begun to require special exercises and activities with children.

It is believed that any exercise that develops fine motor skills develops speech and thinking. Does the child not speak or speak poorly? Collect puzzles, lace up, and speech will appear! Do you want your baby to develop well? Develop your fingers, and your brain will develop much more efficiently. But this is not true, or not entirely true. Let's try to figure it out and separate the truth from the myths. And also learn how to use exercises to develop fine motor skills so that they really develop our little ones.

Development of fine motor skills in children: video

Development of fine motor skills, speech and thinking of a child.

It has already become a classic statement that The development of the hand helps the speech development of a preschool child and develops thinking. And all teachers and speech therapists know the words of M.M. Koltsova “There is every reason to consider the hand as an organ of speech - the same as the articulatory apparatus. From this point of view, the projection of the hand is another speech area of ​​the brain.” This position entered pedagogy in the 70s of the 20th century and is justified both by the results of an experiment with children and by the anatomy of the brain (Broca’s speech motor center and the center that controls finger motor skills are located nearby).

But we have always met and still meet families in which they work a lot with their children in developing fine motor skills, buy special toys and aids (laces, sorters, beads), but the result is not pleasing, and for some reason there is no shift in the development of speech and thinking.

And there are other families where they don’t seem to be specifically involved in developing fine motor skills and are not doing anything, the child just sculpts, draws, plays, helps his mother around the house, but fine motor skills are fine, and the baby is clearly very smart and has well-developed thinking and speech.

So, special games are not a panacea? Or – here comes a seditious thought – are we conducting them wrong? And there’s something we obviously don’t know? Yes this is true!

After all, finger games and exercises are just a tool. And you also need to know how to use it! After all, we learn to use other instruments - we learn to play the violin, sew on a sewing machine or crochet. If we try to play the Paganini violin without training and without special knowledge, we will not get the desired result.

And the basis of my story is scientific research on child development. I highly recommend that specialists get acquainted with them in the book “15 Myths about Children’s Speech.” The authors of the book are Oleg Igorevich Efimov, a pediatric neurologist, and Victoria Leonidovna Efimova, a candidate of pedagogical sciences, speech therapist. The book was published by Dilya publishing house this year.

And for non-specialists - interested parents and educators - I will give the most important recommendations in this article. And I will share what I know and use in working with children.

First fact. So, where did it all start? In the 70s, research was conducted on the development of infants. The children from the orphanage were divided into three subgroups. One subgroup of children sat in the playpen, the second could calmly crawl around the group room. And the third subgroup assembled pyramids, stringed beads and did other exercises to develop fine motor skills with the experimenter. And the children of the third subgroup significantly surpassed their peers in development; they had a sharp leap in speech development. It turns out that “engage in the development of fine motor skills - and everything will be fine”? But that's not true.

Second fact. The author of the book is V.L. Efimova conducted another experiment in an orphanage in 2001. And he gave a completely different result. It turned out that children in the orphanage, as early as one and a half years old, eat soup themselves with a spoon, fasten the buttons on their clothes themselves, they do a lot with them - they endlessly collect pyramids, inserts, and sort. But at the same time... they don’t say!!! What is the reason? Maybe we communicate with kids differently? Or do finger games really not have that much effect on the development of speech and thinking? Did the fact that you just started communicating with these kids affect the result of the previous experiment? And all other subgroups of children did not have such communication with an adult experimenter, and therefore were behind in development?

Third fact. It turns out that the answer to the question can be given to us not by pedagogy, but by physiology! Scientists prove that at an early age the primary speech center in children is not Broca’s center, but the anterior part of the cingulate cortex, which means... the development of fingers does not directly affect the development of the child!?

What then influences? The limbic system is the center of human emotional life! So, does it primarily influence communication with an adult? After all, we know how quickly kids grasp information in a state of joy and interest.

Modern biological research makes it possible to assume that Wernicke’s and Broca’s areas mature no earlier than the third or fourth year of a child’s life (as we remember, it was the proximity of this very Broca’s center to the motor control center that previously allowed scientists to assume the great influence of finger games on the development of speech in children).

Scientific work in this direction is still underway, but what should we do at this time???

Fourth fact. The answer to all questions! And a key for teachers and parents!

It turns out that what is important is not the fact of finger games and exercises, but WHAT exercises and HOW are carried out with the baby. And therefore, either there will be a result of such games and exercises, or there will not be one! And this depends on whether motor planning is involved in finger exercises and in games for the development of fine motor skills. What it is?

Motor planning is between the idea and the execution of actions. There are automatic movements that do not require motor planning and are performed in a familiar way. And motor planning appears when a new task appears, when you need to use a new tool, when you need to do something unmastered and unusual in life.

Dear readers, who attended our April “Developmental Games Workshop” - remember the first webinar about the mechanisms of baby development. And the concept of “zone of proximal development”? This is what we are talking about now. For those who did not attend the webinar, due to popular demand, I made a newsletter in which you can receive a recording of it for free. To do this, you need to subscribe in the subscription form after the article.

It is known that in all children with developmental problems, motor planning is poorly developed. And this is precisely the root of all troubles in many cases of developmental delay. But how can it be poorly developed if the baby at home has a bunch of educational toys for developing fine motor skills, there are pyramids, lacing, and beads for stringing? What's the answer?

As we already know, motor planning appears in the case of new tasks, new unusual situations, new materials, new actions. The key word here is new, unusual! When a child already knows his only pyramid by heart, but assembles it many times, even quickly assembles it to the delight of all adults - this is not a new action! There is no motor planning here! When he plays with the same lacing, this is also not motor planning, but almost a skill. After all, such a toy is no longer new to him, but familiar! When he sees the same cards for many days, with which an adult performs the same actions, there is no motor planning here either! Namely, motor planning ensures the developmental effect of exercises!

So, what's the conclusion? Where can we find our Key to Success?

1. The fact of execution is not important exercises to develop fine motor skills, important what exercises we do with the child and How.
2. The main principle of conducting exercises and games for the development of fine motor skills is this:– if the baby can do this movement quickly and easily, then we quickly do it, skip it and move on. But what if the exercise doesn’t work out? Then we stop at it and practice this movement until the movements become easy, simple, fast, beautiful, and clear. And we move on to mastering new movements.
3. It is necessary to do such complexes of exercises and games that are difficult for a child regularly until complete mastery, that is, every day (4-5 minutes).

Previously, kindergartens had special five-minute finger exercises before breakfast - every day! This was when I started working, and I remember it very well. The kids did the same set of finger gymnastics for at least one week, until they completely mastered it. Every day they did better and better. Now, for many years now, such regular minutes in ordinary kindergartens, alas, have not existed or are almost non-existent. And finger gymnastics exists as a part of classes with children, and almost always children are given different exercises on different days of the week! And it happens that the exercises are too easy for children, which they already do so easily! But the essence of such gymnastics lies in the regular gradual mastery of complex movements.

The secret of successful classes for the development of fine motor skills is already known. Now let's figure it out what is included in the development of fine motor skills and what exercises a child needs.

Why do you need to develop fine motor skills? What is the problem of modern society and why was it not specifically developed before, and children did not have problems? Why are long cartoons harmful? What is thread writing and how to practice it with children? You will learn about this in the video of the first educational channel.

What includes the development of fine motor skills in children under three years of age:

1. Grasping movements:

• Grasping an object of different shapes with the entire palm with one hand or two hands (rattle, cube, ball, etc.), for which it is necessary to take into account its shape, size, location, details.
• Grasping an object or substance with a pinch (three fingers)
• Grasping an object with two fingers - index and thumb (tweezers grip).

2. Development of correlating actions

The ability to combine two objects or two parts of one object (inserts, sorters, pyramids, nesting dolls and other similar toys).

3. Development of finger movements - performing various figures and finger movements(bunny, wolf, house, chair and others).

At first these movements are clumsy, with errors, but over time they become more subtle and clear. It is also important to be able to imitate the movements shown by an adult.

These skills are developed not only in the process of special finger gymnastics, but also:

• while putting on your clothes with buttons, zippers,
• during work assignments (from 3 years old - watering, dusting, wiping plant leaves with a sponge, brushing clothes, etc.),
• in fine arts - drawing, modeling, appliqué, design,
• in games - dressing and undressing dolls in the game, using substitute objects, making toys, attributes for their games, etc.

How to develop fine motor skills in children?

Development of fine motor skills: massage of hands and fingers for the youngest (up to one year).

Hand massage is given to the youngest children. He is not complex. Here is the technique of such a massage, given by O. Prikhodko

• pat Pull the baby's arms up to the elbow towards the center six to eight times, each arm separately. You need to iron both the inner and outer surfaces of the handle.
• Fingers are dancing. Bend and straighten all the fingers of the handle at the same time except the thumb (2-4 times on each handle).
• Exercise "Glomerulus". Draw spiral movements with your finger along the baby’s open palm from its center to the base of the fingers (remember the famous nursery rhyme about “magpie and crow”). After this, without interruption, the movement moves to the inner side of the thumb. Draw these balls two to four times on each palm.
• Exercise “We are walking top-to-toe” - point pressure with the thumb and index finger of an adult. We press on the middle of the phalanx of each finger from tip to base. We say: “top-top, that’s how we walk.” You need to press in two planes: between the fingers and from the back of the palm. So massage all the fingers 1-2 times. At the same time, we say nursery rhymes, rhymes, and talk to the baby.
• Thumb exercise. Move your thumb to the side and then return it to its place. You need to move your finger in three directions in turn: back and forth, sideways - back to the starting position, in a circle.
• Stroke with light movements each hand of the baby towards the center five to six times.

Development of fine motor skills: games and exercises for young children (from one to three years old)

Adviсe:

• Games and exercises for developing fine motor skills are difficult for babies and therefore should not be lengthy.
• They should be carried out in a game so that the child finds it interesting (sort out the cereal for Cinderella, help the hedgehog hide under his needles from the fox and other game situations).
• If the movement fails, the fingers do not obey, then the game must be repeated many times until the movement is easy, correct, and clear. In this case, you need to change the plot of the game, objects, and introduce something new each time, so that the child is captivated by the game and not tired of the monotony (first, lay out a bridge for the dog from small pebbles on plasticine. Next time, lay out a path for the doll. Third once lay out a river for the fish and so on).
• All games and exercises for the development of fine motor skills should always be carried out in the presence of an adult in order to ensure the safety of such games.
• Don't use games with buttons. They do not develop fine motor skills (no matter what their manufacturers say), but only distract the child.

List of exercises and games for developing children's fine motor skills

1. Rubber bulb(sold at the pharmacy). Choose a small pear. By pressing it, you get a stream of air that can be used to blow away a piece of cotton wool or a leaf from the table. You can even play football, trying to force cotton wool into the goal with a stream of air. For children of the first year of life, a pear is not needed; this role is performed by rubber toys - squeakers, by playing with which the baby develops hand strength.
2.Kneading plasticine. Before sculpting, be sure to let a child of any age knead the plasticine. This is a very useful exercise for developing fine motor skills. In this regard, ordinary domestic plasticine is much more useful than soft imported plasticine.
3.Playing with raisins is always very joyful for both mother and child and useful for the whole family. Make the dough, roll it out. Invite your child to decorate the dough with raisins. Show how to correctly grasp the raisin (“tweezers grip” with two fingers – thumb and forefinger). Show that the raisins should be placed throughout the dough at a distance from each other. Then bake the resulting pie and eat it with the whole family! Joy guaranteed!
4. Stringing rings onto the rod of the pyramid (development of correlative movements of the hands). First, the baby learns to disassemble the pyramid toy (this is easier), and only then assemble it. Please note that even the smallest children easily remember the sequence of colors in a pyramid and assemble it simply from memory, and not from comparing values. Therefore, if you want to teach them to compare the size of the rings and arrange them from largest to smallest sequentially, then you need a pyramid with rings of the same color!
5.Exercises with paper:

1) kneading – development of hand strength (after this you will get a “ball” that can be thrown into the basket from a distance),

2) tear (development of correlating movements) - grab the sheet with the fingers of both hands and pull in different directions. You get stripes. We put these strips in a box and make it “rain” by pouring our strips out of the box.

Important Tips:

- When offering your child paper for this exercise, you should always show him where he can get the paper from. And they themselves must always take paper for this game only from this box. Otherwise, the baby will understand that it is possible to tear everything that is around and will tear books or something else necessary. There is always a place for this exercise.

— Don’t let us tear up old books and magazines. With any game we develop an attitude towards life. And this is an example of unacceptable treatment of a book. In addition, printing ink is not at all healthy for small children.

- You can give old rolls of wallpaper for this exercise.

3) make appliqués from paper balls (crumple the paper, tear it into strips, then tear the strips into squares, roll each square on your palm into a ball, lay out a silhouette with balls - for example, a cat, a lamb, a cloud)

4) make appliqués from pieces of paper that the baby tore. Draw a picture on a piece of whatman paper. And stick pieces of paper on it according to the plot. White glued pieces can represent snow or clouds, blue ones can represent a river, yellow ones can represent autumn foliage of trees.

6. Pressing small objects into plasticine (beads, seeds, shells, small pebbles). So we can make paintings - mosaics on plasticine. You can also help the hero of the game - for example, make a “blue river” (smear plasticine on a strip of cardboard) and build a bridge across the river (press pebbles into the plasticine). And then the toys will walk across this bridge and thank the baby for his help.

7. Sorting small items– it is very important that the baby does this either with a pinch (with three fingers), or using the “tweezer grip” method, that is, grips with two fingers – the thumb and forefinger. At the same time, the remaining fingers should be bent and not interfere. Show your child the correct way to do this exercise.

Mix two types of beads (or peas and beans; or shells and pebbles, or buttons of different shapes and sizes) in one box and ask for help. You can sort by color (if you mixed beads of two colors), by shape, by size. First, the baby sorts two types of fairly large objects. Then the task becomes more complicated - smaller objects are taken and sorted into 3-5 groups (for example, beans in one box, peas in another, beads in a third, pebbles in a fourth, shells in a fifth).

Sorting always happens in the game. For example, our chicken loves peas, and our rooster loves beans. We need to divide the food into bowls for them.

Or one doll likes pasta, and the other likes beans. You need to give everyone what she loves.

Sorting small items is very important in the third year of a child's life.

8. Oversleeping. Using a funnel, scoop, or spoon, pour various bulk substances from one container to another. You can add sand, cereals, peas, lentils). Use different dishes - you can pour it into a glass, a vessel with a narrow neck using a funnel. You can pour sand into the box with your hands, hide and look for various small toys in the sand.

9. Use of cutlery- spoons forks. The ability to independently eat with a spoon, fork, or drink from a cup is also a very important component of a child’s development and the development of fine motor skills.

10. Unwrapping an object wrapped in paper - a surprise - “What’s there?” When the baby unrolls the paper and finds the gift and plays with it, wrap it again - hide it in another paper. And try to find again. Teach your child to wrap - to hide an object from an older sister or brother, dad, or grandmother. Let them rejoice when his surprise is unwrapped.

11. Filling the bottle with small objects. You can put beans, pebbles, and balls into a plastic bottle.

To make this exercise effective, show your child how to do it correctly:

- Grasp small objects either with a pinch or with two fingers (thumb and forefinger) - just show how you grab the object.

- Hold the bottle with one hand and take one part at a time with the other hand. It is very important to ensure that your baby picks up correctly and one piece at a time!

- At the end, close the bottle with a lid and rattle the resulting rattle.

12.Constructors. Various construction toys develop fine motor skills very well. It is important to have several construction sets at home (but always with DIFFERENT principles for connecting parts). Making crafts and working with clay is also very useful.

13. Winding. Winding a thick thread onto a stick, onto a spool, onto a ball and unwinding. Winding a thick cord around your hand or your mother’s

14. Stringing beads with large holes onto a cord. I saw a very good idea for stringing at the Solnyshko kindergarten in Moscow. Teachers at this kindergarten collect old, unwanted markers with plastic casings. This body is sawn into pieces. The result is multi-colored “tubes” that are strung on a cord.

You can also string spools of thread, rings for curtains, parts of construction sets, beads made of clay or salt dough, rings from small pyramids.

15. Turn the pages of the book one at a time. This exercise is available to children from one year onwards. To do this, the pages of the first book must be thick, made of cardboard.

Show your child the book. And on the next page put a picture - a surprise. To find it, you need to turn the page. If it is difficult for the baby, then help him by slightly lifting the page.

16. Games - lacing(lace the apple to the back of the hedgehog, clothing details and other plot lacing). But these games quickly get boring for the baby. Therefore, it is better if you have a doll whose shoes or clothes are tied with a lace. By putting on and undressing this doll in play, your baby will easily and happily practice tying.

17. Untie and tie knots, bows, braid, unfasten and fasten Velcro, buttons, buttons, hooks, zippers, take off and put on a hat, pull off socks, take off shoes.

Although most often in modern families the task of children mastering different types of fasteners is solved with the help of an educational book or rug, this is just the first stage. Then the baby trains to do this in everyday life.

The baby's clothes should have different fasteners - buttons of different shapes and sizes, buttons. It should be taken into account that it is much easier to fasten the clasp on a rug or another person than on yourself.

The situation when a child has only Velcro on his clothes and shoes throughout preschool age leads to the fact that even second-graders at 8-9 years old are not able to dress themselves if the clothes have a different type of fastener, and they cannot even tie their shoelaces when changing clothes. physical education! But a child’s lack of independence and dependence on an adult directly affects his future behavior and success in life.

Already at an early age, the child can taking off and putting on a hat, holding out the arms when putting on a sweater, putting on and taking off mittens and gloves, pulling off socks, taking off boots, putting your hands in the sleeves and your legs in your pants, taking off unbuttoned pants, a coat, a jacket - and this is also a contribution to the development of fine motor skills baby, and a very big contribution.

18. Tops. First, the baby learns to launch a spinning top, and then large-sized tops. And after that, give the baby small tops. Instead of a top, use any other objects: pyramid rings, balls, plastic bowls, etc. It is also useful to wind wind-up toys with a key.

19. Open and close jars (unscrew and tighten the lids) To make it more interesting, hide the surprise inside by wrapping it in paper. At the same time, the baby will practice unfolding and folding paper. What's hidden in the jar?

20. Lay out figures from sticks, from different types of mosaics.

21. Rolling balls. Children roll small balls around table (along the playing field, on which you can draw different paths - straight, curved, spiral). During the game, the ball should not slip out from under the palm. Tell your baby: “The balls are naughty! So they try to run away. Don’t let them go!” Balls can be rolled either with your palms (in the first games) or with one finger (in subsequent games).

22. Rolling a pencil between your palms. First, try rolling the pencil on the table with your palm. Then show your baby how to roll a pencil between straightened palms in his hands (the pencil is in a vertical position). You can glue a picture to the end of a pencil that will “dance” - spin.

More about the development of children’s fine motor skills on the “Native Path” website:

We will talk about how to develop fine motor skills in children from 3 to 7 years old in the next article (for children from 3 to 7 years old). In it you will find finger games, exercises by Maria Montessori for the development of fine motor skills in preschoolers, finger theater, games with clothespins, tests to determine the level of development of fine motor skills and many other interesting ideas.

You will find a list of “20 of the most interesting and unusual items for the development of fine motor skills in children.”

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