Scissor Skills
Scissor Skills
Cutting on the lines requires lots of practice! To get those fingers moving, give your child a pair of blunt scissors and your junk mail and let her shred away. Or give him a magazine and let him cut out favorite pictures. Remind your child to keep her thumb pointing up when she cuts. As the cutting improves, you can draw lines to follow. Start with straight lines and progress to curves.
Finger
Strength
Writing and coloring require a proper finger grip. The best way to improve the grip is to help increase your child's finger strength. Some fun ways to do this are:
* using a spray bottle of water in the tub or outdoors. Make a pile of shaving cream and squirt it until it disappears!
* drawing with chalk on a resistant surface. Your driveway is perfect for this.
* tracing around stencils. It is tricky to hold the stencil firmly while tracing around it.
* using play dough. Roll it into balls and snakes. For more resistance, try clay or Silly Puddy. Hide small objects in it and have your child dig them out. Use toothpicks to poke designs in the dough.
* picking up objects with tweezers. Try to pick up cotton balls, Cheerios, pennies.
* stringing and lacing activities. You can buy lacing cards or make your own with a hole punch and cardboard. If you string beads, try it on a pipe cleaner first. This is easier than yarn or string.
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Janice Lutt.