Out of your mouth! Fine motor playMarch 23, 2016

Our little ball of exploration just wants to feed that inquisitive nature but is stuck in the oral stage. It’s frustrating because some parents seem to breeze through this rather quickly, while others are stuck there for a year or more.

Beyond the limitations, all those little pieces really help develop fine motor skills and he loves playing with anything that has lots of ‘bits’. Hence, it’s not stopped us finding favourite ‘fine motor control’ structured activities, so I thought I’d share.

1. Matchsticks. Sensory tubs are great, but in reality eating big handfuls of hard rice or dried cereal just doesn’t fit our needs. Our house isn’t all that suitable for wet play either. Brightly coloured matchsticks are big enough to easily retrieve from the ground / lips, but still fall in a beautiful way and can be threaded through card tubes or searched through.

2. The Crayon Box. More than just a chance to scribble with chunky crayons. By using a small pacifier box to store our crayons we spend as long, if not longer, manipulating the clasp, filling and emptying out. The paper must be fully taped to the table.

3. Sticky Foam Floor Piece Shapes. (catchy title I know!) This is an activity we don’t do too often but totally adore. The floor pieces give us a contained area and strong frame for the sticky back plastic. Small bits of paper, funky foam, tissue paper, string, and fabric scraps endure regular ‘turn and shake’ until everything is stuck so nothing can be eaten later!

4. Playdough. I make my own using this recipe but then we’ll only play with up to 1/4 of the dough at once. Limiting the amount not only makes it easier to manipulate but also to keep track of.

5. lolly Stick Can. Big chunky threading as well as the obligatory fill and dump are served quite well by this. The can lid has two slits and one circle hole that’s a bit easier to use.

Those are our top 5.
Did you get stuck at the oral stage? What activities did your youngsters enjoy?

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