what the love letters????

its worth thinking about though......

Hi Matrixx, what is his gross motor development like? Sometimes it can be worth concentrating on this for a while and maybe getting him to paint large letters in water, say on the outside wall. Or tracing the shapes of letters/numbers/shapes with ribbons using large arm movements. That way he'll get a 'feel' for the shape before trying to refine it.

Wet sand is also a good one for strengthening muscles, lots of squeezing/kneading etc. Playdough has been mentioned already I think, or one of those stress balls (can you still get those?)

As well as play dough, I also use a stress ball for strengthening the finger muscles, I keep it to hand so it can be used in any few spare minutes (I have so far stopped myself from using to throw at the hooligans in the class!)

frisbees, or anything doing that kind of throwing movement are good for developing the shoulder and arm muscles and apparently those stilt thingies, the ones that look like upturned pots with the strings you hold onto. (I can't do them to save my life) .
MG could be right about concentrating on the gross motor skills because if these muscles are't developed enough the child will not be able to develop the fine motor skills for writing etc, you have to work from the shoulder down towards the fingers.

We use write dance to help with the development of gross motor skills, it's great for strengthening the arm and shoulder muscles, and great fun too!

Hi all, Oh what great help you all are! much appreciated..Mothergoose pointed out his gross motor Skills...the child has cerebal palsy..So i think that is why he has not developed his strength as he is supposed to, he is 8 yrs old and working to the ability of a 3 yr old! and i am at the moment working on his tripod grip, which is going quite well, and his balance is not great but still he dosent seem to fall over! I Have been using play dough which he likes, rolling in to a sausage etc...As for sand dont even go there...hehe he has an obsession with it he will repetetively get a handful and watch it leave his hand..i think its called a "Schemer". Dropping coins is a good idea and threading but might be difficult..

A few more ideas for fine motor control, I also work with a boy with Cerebral Palsy, he is 7, and I find these have helped, sorry if I'm preaching to the converted and you already do these things!

For pinching and tripod grip - paper tearing/crumbling (ie for collage), large tweezers for picking up bits and bobs, spring clothes pegs - these are great!

For strengthening wrist and hand muscles - wringing and squeezing sponges and cloth (art and craft), crushing newspaper in balls (for target throwing etc!), punching holes with a paper punch using various thickness of paper (again can be used for art and craft)

matrixx,
I know you posted your question ages ago now but how about using squeezy washing up bottles. If you fill them with water and then get him to squeeze them one handed and write his name etc on the playground with the water he will be using big arm movements to exercise his gross motor muscles but also the squeezing motion will help with his finger muscle development. AND above all its lots of fun!!!

Thnaks Flossie! I am currently working on painting the outside wall with water, He loves it! He asked me are we allowed to do this?lol using squeezy bottles will put some more creativity in i...Great idea!

Glad to help.

I know this is an old thread but we have a new child who has difficulty with fine motor skills and I would love some more suggestions. I have done the others before with younger children but the child seems too mature for some of them (emotionally). Does anyone have any suggestions that might appeal more to an older primary child?

Have you tried using beeswax to make little model animals.You can buy it from a Steiner shop in lots of colours. You need to warm it a little first as their fingers get strong it need warmed less.

That sounds a good idea, I need to really get to know the child better as well as I don't know what his interests are yet.

Playdoh gym?

I have done many of the activities already mentioned but others that have I used with sucess are:

Sueezing oranges using a traditional orange squeezer (they drank the juice after! A bit messy but great fun and great for fine motor skills)
I also got a water sprayer or you could use a water pistol, and we went around the school gardens spraying the plants.
Also used a pipette or meat baster to collect up coloured water then squeezed drops into small items/containers to see which took the most water to fill.
Hope this helps.