What is fine motor skills and how to develop it?

Scientists, psychologists and neuroscientists have long argued that fine motor skills are closely related to the development of the cerebral cortex responsible for speech and the tactile perception of a person. It is a set of actions coordinated among themselves, various systems of the body (bone, nervous, muscular), especially when performing small and precise movements with fingers and hands.

At the beginning of life it is the development of fine motor skills that affects the child's intellectual abilities. On how clever the kid is handling objects with his fingers, much depends on his future life. After all, this skill is then useful when fastening clothes, writing and many other skills.

Parents are encouraged to develop small children's motor skills almost from birth. It is very important to deal with children after a year and preschool children. For this, there are simple exercises and games.

You should start as early as possible. For the baby, it is easy enough massage of the hands and each individual finger. Toys that can not only touch and grab, but also move, disassemble, collect, etc., will contribute to the fact that the small motor skills of the baby's hands gradually develop. Many well-known since childhood games "Ladushki", "Magpie-Crow", "Goat horned" can be started to use already with half a year. At the beginning of daily activities, the adult shows the movements or makes them the child's handles, gradually the child learns to repeat for the parents independently.

Such work should be done regularly, taking into account the age and level of the child's physical development. Finger games will be of interest to the youngest children, preschoolers and even younger schoolchildren. Creative teachers use in their lessons elements of theatrical activity with finger puppets. Thanks to this, not only small motor skills develop, but also speech, attention, and imagination of children. Parents of the house can also put on performances using such kind of dolls. This, among other things, will help to strengthen relations and unite the family.

More and more popular are paints, which are painted without a brush (the so-called "finger"). Thus, children begin their knowledge of the surrounding world, acquaintance with color, develop their abilities. It is worthwhile to encourage every achievement of the child, even if it seems to parents to be insignificant, because there are no trifles in the formation of a small person. The baby began to reach for the toy, the baby took the spoon for the first time, the preschool child drew his first drawing - it's all worthy of welcoming and stimulating. And everywhere it involves fine motor skills.

A lot is said about the fact that speech is directly related to motor skills. This is another of the most important reasons, because of which the development of the latter is necessary. Children with speech delay usually have poor coordination of the movements of the fingers. A consequence of this can be violations of the letter (dysgraphy), and hence other problems in training.

I must say that special pedagogical skills are not required for the development of fine motor skills. After a year you can use such usual games as mosaic (start better with simple pictures containing few elements, gradually complicating), a designer (only under the supervision of adults up to three years old), modeling of plasticine or salted dough.

Such activities contribute to the fact that the child's small motor skills develop, thereby stimulating other cognitive processes of the child, as well as speech. It must be said that one should not treat these activities and games as something necessary, to make kids. It should be an interesting and enjoyable pastime for both adults and children. Even the usual tying of a lace can turn into an interesting and developing game.