An occupational therapist can work with your child to create a plan to improve fine motor skills.
Fine motor skills are the small movements needed to do everyday tasks. These skills are different from gross motor skills. Gross motor skills use bigger muscles in the arms and legs to wave, jump, and run. Fine motor skills use the smaller muscles in fingers and hands.
Your child uses fine motor skills to:
Play with small toys
Cut paper with scissors
Write or color with pencils or pens
Open food containers
Button and zip clothes
Treatment for cancer, sickle cell disease, and other serious illnesses can make hands and fingers feel weak. Your child can build hand and finger strength and control to make tasks easier. An occupational therapist can suggest activities to help fine motor skills, if needed.
Activities for grip strength
Strong hands make it easier to hold things, use tools, and do everyday tasks.
Always watch your child closely during these activities. Avoid small objects that your child could put in their mouth and swallow. Keep objects that are small enough to fit entirely into your child’s mouth out of reach, especially for children under age 3.
Strength-building activities
To build strength for squeezing, grabbing, and holding things:
Squeeze foam balls or putty. Start with softer pieces. Use firmer pieces as your child gets stronger.
Stir, knead, roll, and pinch playdough.
Squirt water from a spray bottle on a surface and “clean” with a sponge.
Push, pull, or carry toys or climb on playground equipment.
Hand and finger strength and coordination activities
To develop strength and coordination for placing and moving things:
Use child-safe scissors to cut shapes, lines, or paper snowflakes.
Use a hole punch to make holes in paper.
Pull apart and put together snap-together blocks, toys, or beads (often called pop-beads) that lock together.
Tear paper into small pieces, roll up into spheres, or fold into shapes.
Build with blocks or interlocking building bricks.
Activities to help finger and hand control (dexterity)
Dexterity is how well your child can control their fingers and hands to do tasks.
Threading and linking activities
To improve dexterity for dressing, writing, and using tools:
String beads onto a string or shoelace.
Make a macaroni necklace.
Connect plastic links.
Turning and rolling activities
To improve dexterity for twisting and moving objects:
Screw and unscrew nuts and bolts or lids on jars.
Roll a pencil or marble between the thumb and fingers.
Play with wind-up toys.
Everyday hand-use activities
To improve dexterity for daily tasks:
Practice with buttons, zippers, and hooks.
Tie shoelaces.
Type on a keyboard.
Hand-eye coordination and problem-solving activities
To improve coordination and problem-solving:
Complete puzzles.
Play shape-sorting games.
Stack blocks or do model-building activities.
Color, paint, or do crafts.
Dress and undress dolls.
Play a musical instrument.
Activities to improve the pinching motion (pincer grasp)
The pincer grasp is when your child uses the tips of their thumb and first finger to pick up and move small objects.
To improve the pincer grasp:
Pick up and move small items
Use tweezers to pick up pom-poms, beads, or cotton balls. Move them from 1 place to another.
Put coins into a piggy bank 1 at a time.
Pin and remove clothespins from boxes, cans, or paper.
Practice squeezing small objects
Pop bubble wrap.
Use an eye dropper to move liquid from 1 container to another.
Squeeze puffy paint onto fabric or a canvas.
Use a bulb-type nasal aspirator to blow small pieces of paper or cotton balls across a table or floor.
Put together Legos®.
Play with clay, putty, or modeling compound
Pinch clay to make a bowl.
Pull putty in opposite directions to make strings. Connect ends to make necklaces and bracelets.
Hide small objects like coins or beads in putty. Find them and take them out.
Cut putty with child-safe scissors.
An occupational therapist can suggest other activities or exercises to improve your child’s fine motor skills.
Fine motor skills milestones
Children build fine motor skills as they grow and practice. These milestones are general guides to what many children can do by certain ages. Each child develops at their own pace.
Early infancy (birth–6 months)
Opens hands and starts to bring them toward their face and mouth
Grabs your finger or a small object
Reaches for and holds small toys
Around 6–9 months
Moves toys from 1 hand to the other
Drags small objects with their fingers
Bangs objects together
About 9–12 months
Uses a pincer grasp to hold small things
Puts things into and out of containers
Makes marks on paper with a crayon
12–18 months
Uses fingers to eat foods
Stacks 2–3 blocks
Reaches for and grabs toys
Places pegs into holes
15–24 months
Turns thick book pages one at a time
Uses a pincer grasp more consistently to pick up small things
Throws a ball inaccurately
Scribbles with a crayon or marker with more control
2–3 years
Builds a tower of blocks
Places large shapes into shape sorters
Puts beads on a string
Missing a milestone does not mean there is a problem. If you have concerns about your child’s development, talk with their care team.
Key points about improving fine motor skills
Fine motor skills are small hand and finger movements that help your child do everyday tasks like eating, dressing, writing, and playing.
These skills develop as your child grows and practices using their hands and fingers.
Building hand strength and coordination helps your child hold, move, and control objects more easily.
Simple play activities, like squeezing, cutting, threading, pushing, and pulling, can help improve fine motor skills.
For building fine motor skills, using activities your child already enjoys can help them feel more confident when transferring the skills to play, school, and self-care
An occupational therapist can suggest other activities to help, if needed.
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The Together by St. Jude™ online resource does not endorse any branded product or organization mentioned in this article.
Physical therapy can improve strength, balance, and healing for your child during and after treatment. Learn how PT supports recovery and daily function.
