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Busy Hands is a selection of experiences across all age groups, focused on supporting children with their fine motor skills. Fine motor skills are the use of the small muscles within your hands, fingers and wrists. Below you will find a selection of experiences suitable for children aged 2-3.

Picture reveal

Develop your child's hand grip and hand control as they take part in this experience.

Safety first

Ensure this experience is supervised and wipe up any water spillages to prevent slipping hazards.

What to do

Prior to the experience, collect together some printed pictures. These could be printed from the computer, photocopied from a book or cut out from a magazine or leaflet. Where possible, laminate these pictures however this is not essential.

At a table or within a tray, role model to your child how you can place a piece of kitchen roll over the top of one of the pictures. Dip the sponge into the bowl of water and then squeeze the water out of the sponge into the bowl. Then gently wipe the sponge over the piece of kitchen roll several times. As the kitchen roll becomes wet, the picture underneath will start to be visible. Invite your child to name the picture underneath.

Invite your child to then choose another picture and place a fresh piece of kitchen roll over this picture. Encourage your child to then have a turn at using the sponge to reveal the picture.

More Information

Providing opportunities for children to practice their hand control, will support them with body awareness, as the children will start to understand how much pressure they need to apply with their hands or fingers to complete a task, eventually without having to look at them.

Elastic bands

Support your child's finger grip and strength as they take part in this experience.

Safety first

Ensure this experience is supervised.

What to do

Invite your child to join you and show and name the resources collected together.

Role model to your child how you can use your fingers on both hands to stretch an elastic band, as you then place this over the jar so the elastic band now sits around the jar.

Invite your child to then join in as they thread the elastic bands over the jar.

More Information

Strong fine motor skills are essential for a child’s development, as they contribute to helping a child complete tasks such as writing, cutting, using a fork or spoon, zipping, buttoning and tying shoe laces.

Stick thread

Support your child's pincer grip as they take part in this threading experience.

Safety first

Ensure this experience is supervised and avoid your child placing items into their mouths.

What to do

Invite your child to join you sat at the table or on the floor. Explain to your child we are going to complete a threading activity. Show your child the resources and name these. Add a piece of blue tac or playdough to one end of a wooden skewer.

Role model to your child how you can pick up a pasta tube or cereal hoop using your pincer grip (thumb and index finger) as you then thread this onto the skewer.

Invite your child to then have a turn as they thread the pasta tubes or cereal hoops onto the skewer. See if they can continue threading these items onto the skewer until they reach the top of the skewer. You could count with your child how many items they have threaded on the skewer.

More Information

Threading opportunities support children with their manipulating and grasping skills, supporting the children with being able to manipulate objects using one hand later in life, such as using scissors.