Fine motor-centered private lessons for children

• Fine motor-centered private lessons for children of all ages are $45 per hour in your home.

• No driving expenses apply within 7 miles of my home in Escondido.

• Children of all ages from 18 months can participate in these enriching private lessons, and I can develop a tailored curriculum based on the needs of your child.

Please read below to find out more information on the methods I use to teach, as well as a bit of fine motor education.

Many of the children who have poor fine motor skills have a distinct and primary disorder of motor development that has now been recognized by the American Psychiatric Association and the World Health Organization as "developmental coordination disorder" (DCD; Barnett, Kooistra, & Henderson, 1998). This disorder is actually a common condition that is present in about 5% of children who are school-aged, yet very few physicians know about or give this diagnosis. I am not a specialist and it is always recommended that you get diagnosed from a professional, as poor fine motor skills could be the result of a more serious neurological disorder.

I strongly feel that long-term work with any child can prevent secondary problems from developing. Children with fine motor difficulties benefit from a collaborative approach that involves the child, the family, the teacher and appropriate health care professionals. Like any skill, this is something that can be learned and improved upon with time.

What are fine motor skills?

Fine motor skills are small muscle movements that occur in the finger, in coordination with the eyes. Children with poor motor skills have difficulty learning to print manuscript or cursive letters or who have trouble with the legibility, spacing and organization of letters. Children of all ages can have difficulty with these skills, and without proper assessment, a child can go well on into the ages when they are writing cursive before it becomes evident.

With class sizes in most schools being 15-21 children, young children in particular between the ages of kindergarten and 2nd grade can slip through the cracks. And with California standards overwhelming teachers and students, it is very easy for children with low fine motor skills to go unnoticed in a classroom. Kindergarten teachers in particular must have their children reading before they leave the class, another reason why fine motor skills go underdeveloped.

Children with poor fine motor skills can suffer in just about all academic areas. Teaching fine motor skills is similar to teaching other skills because the teacher must always try to be patient and understanding. Fine motor skills won't develop over-night. With time and practice and with art involvement, your child could be developing fine motor skills while having fun.

Developing Fine Motor Skills

Here are some of the methods I use for developing fine motor skills, and some activities I use to practice them:

Cutting - Use a thick black line to guide cutting the following:

1. A fringe from a piece of paper
2. Cut off corners of a piece of paper
3. Cut along curved lines
4. Cut lines with a variety of angles
5. Cut figures with curves and angles
6. Cut clay with blunt scissors

Tracing, Drawing and Coloring:

1. Directed drawing lessons using pencil, sharpies and other mediums
2. Directed coloring lessons using chalk, pencils, markers and other mediums
3. Directed tracing lessons using tracing paper, stencils and metal insets
4. Trace and then color shapes, increasing the size and complexity gradually.

Creative Skills:

1. Place a variety of forms (eg. blocks, felt, paper, string, yarn, cereal, cotton) on outlines
2. Match shapes, color, or pictures to a page and paste them within the outlines
3. Opening and closing jars
4. Rolling out dough or other simple cooking activities
5. Using Scissors
6. Placement of small items
7. Gluing small items

Finger Tracing:

1. Many times when a child is unable to do a worksheet, it helps to trace the pattern with his finger before he tries it with a pencil.
2. Have the child trace a pattern on the paper, in sand or finger paint. The textures give the child kinesthetic feedback.

Pre-Writing:

1. Dot-to-dot drawings of pictures, objects, shapes, numbers, letters, etc.
2. Tile and mosaic work
3. Folding activities
4. Fine coloring
5. Have the child do repetitious strokes (with an increasingly smaller writing tool) similar to those found in manuscript or cursive letters. Emphasize accuracy, spacing and flow or rhythm. Sometimes doing it to music helps.

Writing:

1. Have the child write in the air and in front of his eyes (arm outstretched) with his finger.
2. To increase his tactile awareness, have him trace over letters on textured surfaces. Have him manipulate 3-dimensional letters when blindfolded.
3. When a writing tool is introduced, letters which involve similar strokes should be taught first (moving simple to complex). Next, combinations of letters in short words, sentences and finally spontaneous writing. (Remember to use words which are within the child's reading vocabulary).

Things to remember:

Upright working surfaces promote fine motor skills. Examples of these are: vertical chalkboards; easels for painting; flannel boards; lite bright; magnet boards (or fridge); windows and mirrors; white boards, etc. Kids can also make sticker pictures; do rubber ink-stamping; use reuseable vinyl stickers to make pictures; complete puzzles with thick knobs; use magna-doodle and etch-a-sketch as well. The benefits for these include: having the child's wrist positioned to develop good thumb movements; they help develop good fine motor muscles; the child is using the arm and shoulder muscles.

In general, it is more fun to learn while you play. I try to keep this in mind when teaching fine motor skills. I incorporate these activities along with the practice of writing or tracing skills; cutting and pasting to make a creation other than just a plain piece of paper drawing. The children can be creative and have fun!