ACT-NOW FACT SHEET 34

Developing Fine Motor Skills

Dr Avril Brereton & Ms Katie Broadbent

Centre for Developmental Psychiatry & Psychology Monash University

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Developing Fine Motor skills

Children with autism often have delayed fine motor skills for a range of different reasons. These include: - lack of motivation to participate in these types of activities - limited hand strength - cognitive delays - limited attention span and concentration - and difficulty problem solving It is important to present fine motor activities in motivating and engaging ways suitable for the childs developmental level, to ensure a willingness to participate and to increase the likelihood of success. Fine motor skills are typically developed by children through participation in activities such as drawing and painting, cutting and pasting, threading beads, construction sets (e.g. Lego) and jigsaw puzzles to name a few. If this has been attempted in the past and a child has experienced difficulty or failure, he/she is unlikely to want to engage in these activities in the future. Presenting these activities in interesting and different ways can increase the likelihood of the child with autism choosing to participate, and develop their skills. Once their skills are more developed, the more traditional activities will be easier for them to do, and the child is far more likely to participate. Always remember the childs developmental level when choosing activities. The following is a list of fun, motivating activities to develop a childs fine motor control and strength. Keep the activities short, simple and fun! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Throwing balls/beanbags at a target Manipulating play dough Games: Connect four, Jenga, Barrel of monkeys, block building Spray bottle (with different coloured liquids) to make a picture Pipe cleaner twisting Eye-dropper painting, mixing colours in clear jars Drawing in sand/salt/shaving cream Ripping paper to make a collage Making pictures with stickers

10. Drawing/painting on vertical surfaces to increase wrist extension and arm strength 11. Shovels and digging tools in wet sand 12. Cooking activities: stir batter, roll biscuits, ice a cake 13. Playing with pegs: wring out wet dolls clothes and peg them on a make-shift clothes line to dry

www.med.monash.edu.au/spppm/research/devpsych/actnow

CDPP 2007 Monash University

ACT-NOW Fact Sheet 34

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14. Play dough people: Make playing with play dough a little more interesting by adding toothpicks to the play. See if the child can roll different sized balls and use the toothpicks to stick them together. You can make people, animals, aliens, or just fantastic creations 15. Squirt races: This game can be played as a race with someone else, or individually. Place a floating object (ping pong ball is a good option) in 2 empty containers. Give each child a squirt gun or spray can. They are to fill the container until the object falls out. The first one to knock their object out wins. A child playing alone can experiment with different sized containers to see which is the quickest. 16. Is it the same?: Choose different beans/rice/marbles and place them in separate coloured containers with the lids on (non-see-through). Give the child some clear empty containers to scoop the different beans/rice etc into, using a spoon. Ask the child to put the lids on the containers and give them a shake. Ask him/her to shake the coloured containers and see if they can match up the sounds. When s/he thinks s/hes matched it up, get the child to remove the lid of the coloured container and see if they were right!

17. Shop til you drop: Give the child a shopping list of different pictures of items to find hidden around the room. Use a laundry basket for the trolley, that they are required to push around the room as they go. Make the items that you hide different weights, so the basket gets heavier as they go along (rice bags, pumpkins, laundry powder, juice containers are all good heavy items). You may like to give the child some clues to work on prepositions (under, behind, in, on), or just leave them to their own devices. 18. Step-by-step drawing booklets: Children with autism can have difficulty understanding how to represent something 3D in a 2D format. They also lack imagination, which can make it difficult to envisage how a circle, some dots and a line might be able to make a face. Provide the child with a small booklet with the steps to creating a simple picture. For example, I can draw a face booklet: Page 1: Page 2: Page 3: Page 4: Page 5: Page 6: Draw a circle for the face (with just a circle depicted) 2 dots for eyes (with a circle and now 2 dots added) A long line for the nose (with a circle, 2 dots and a line added) A curvy line for the mouth (with a circle, 2 dots, a long line and a curvy line added) Some squiggles for the hair (with a circle, 2 dots, a long and a curvy line and squiggles added) I have finished drawing a face! (the whole face now drawn with a finished symbol on the page)

www.med.monash.edu.au/spppm/research/devpsych/actnow

CDPP 2007 Monash University