Fine Motor Skills Blog Series #4: Tummy Time and Fine Motor Skills

As an occupational therapist, I know the importance of tummy time but sometimes parents and day care workers hate to put children on their tummies because the child may cry. Tummy time is hard for children as it required work to lift the head and they can't see their surroundings as well. However, just like brushing teeth can be a battle, there are certain things that just have to be done!

What's SIDS got to do with it?
Many national pediatric associations promote putting children to bed on their backs due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. There has been a reduction in SIDS since this recommendations. However, this has also reduced the amount of time children spend on their tummy.

Must See Video
Pathways Awareness Centre has done an amazing job at promoting Tummy Time. Check out this must see video about tummy time and motor abilities. Share this video!

Keep an eye out for my next blog with more specifics about tummy time. This is so important as it is the basis of PREVENTING fine motor skills delays.

Karey

Fine Motor Skills Blog series #3: PROMOTING AND PREVENTING

As an occupational therapist focusing on Fine Motor Skills, my message is very clear to those I teach: promote fine motor skills development in order to prevent fine motor skills delays. It is so much more effective to start when children are infants and toddlers to promote normal development than to deal with fine motor skill delays when they have manifested as poor academics in elementary school.

How to promote fine motor skills
I'll focus on different ages groups with my blogs as working on improving fine motor skills is very age specific. As an infant, grasping is a reflex. You can put your finger out for a baby to hold and he/she will amaze you as they grip onto you. Sorry folks, but that's actually not a planned motor action, it is a reflex. However, you can capatilize on that reflex by giving the baby different sized and shaped objects to grasp, therefore starting to develop their arches of the hand that are first steppping stone to fine motor skills. See how early you can actually start? Right away!

The next advice I would give is to start "Tummy Time" right away. That's right, put your child on their stomach every day for play time. It's difficult when a child does not have head control and it may not be his/her favorite position but make sure you do this daily and gradually work up the amount of time spent on the tummy. This will promote neck control and eventually the child will start to take weight through their arms and then the hands. This is CRITICAL for the development of the shoulder, arm and hand. I will talk more about this in my next blog which I complete monthly.

Karey

Fine Motor Skills Blog Series #2: Why you should be involved

In recent years therapists are noting an increase in fine motor skill delay. This is manifesting itself in schools as children with poor academics, negative behaviors in classrooms and avoidance of paperwork such as homework and in classroom activities.

As an occupational therapist, I see children who have already been negatively affected by a lack of fine motor skills. In my clinical practice, I see mainly 8 to 11 year old boys who can not hold a pencil properly, who have difficulty printing due to letter formation, spacing and neatness. Often, these children have no diagnosis and therefore are not red flagged and "fall through the cracks". Often, it is the parent who determines that there is an issue and does research to find out that their child's fine motor skills may be the problem.

I finally got frustrated enough at not being able to get this message out that I developed a 1 day course for teachers, teaching assistants, parents and allied health professionals to teach them what they needed to know about fine motor skills. My course is called HandWorks: Fine Motor Skills Training.

Getting Fine Motor Skills Training to the masses
After developing this course and delivering it within my region I realized that this issue was bigger than I thought. The feedback from participants was excellent and they wanted more and continued to say that this should be general knowledge for anyone working with children. That's when I decided to put this training online......and what a project this has been. The good news is that fine motor skills training will be available on line soon through http://www.finemotorskillsforchildren.com/ . Keep an eye out for our launch October end 2009.

Karey

Fine Motor Skills...What are they and why are they so important?

Fine motor skills are defined as the coordination of the fingers and thumb. These skills allow us to engage every day in our self care, productivity and leisure activities. The only time you're not using your hands....well, is likely when you're watching television. Even then, you may be using the remote control, eating and making notes on your child's homework! So really, sleeping would be my next example of when your fine motor skills are "at rest"!

So why should you care about fine motor skills?

Firstly the children in your life need you to care as you may be the only person who picks up on what may be a fine motor skill delay. If you are reading this blog, you may already have a child in mind that may be having difficulty. My best advice is to start as young as possible to promote the development of fine motor skills instead of waiting to see if a delay will present itself. If a fine motor delay is left, a child's future can be affected including their academics as well as job options as an adult.

This is why I developed HandWorks, Fine Motor Skills Training and I'll talk more about the content of this training in later blogs. This website will be launched end of October 2009 and will offer fine motor skill webinars and tools to aid in fine motor skill development.

Keep a watch out for my monthly blogs for the latest research, tips, assessment tools and fine motor skill resources.

Karey