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Teaching fine motor skills in children, like pincer grasps, doesn’t have to be a boring, frustrating task. Make fine motor skills practice full of movement, imagination, and play with kids’ yoga!
Try these ideas to get you started – you’ll soon see that pretty much every yoga posture and practice involves fine motor skills.
Fine motor skills: The six big fine motor skills to practice are reach, touch, point, place, grasp, release, push, pull, shake, squeeze, tap, and twist. These yoga practices will encourage kids to practice fine motor skills:
- Handwriting strength: Yoga postures and activities encourage your child to keep their shoulder, tummy, back and hip muscles active and these muscles are the basis for good posture which promotes good handwriting.
Downward dog and plank poses encourage your child to take weight through their hands. This relaxes tense muscles while also building hand and wrist strength and stability.
- Dexterity: Yoga poses that require children to move their fingers or toes in small, precise movements can help to improve their fine motor dexterity.
Play a round of Toe-Ga to encourage little toes to stretch and reach. Or, for finger dexterity, try Peace Begins With Me, tapping your thumb to each finger gently, in order, while repeating the mantra. Here’s a video showing you how.
- Twist: There are so many opportunities to twist your body in yoga, from all sorts of positions, each of which provide different stretching sensations and muscle control.
Start on your back, pull your knees to your chest, and squeeze them in close, like a big hug. Then on an exhale, drop your legs to the left while keeping your chest looking at the ceiling. Relax into this, letting the twist move along your spine. When you’re ready to switch, inhale and bring your knees back up for another squeeze. Then exhale and drop them to the opposite side. Stay and relax.
- Shaking: Shaking your body requires some very precise movements. It is also a great way to release tension from your muscles.
Begin by shaking just one hand, then add the other. Continue by adding in one arm at a time, then both arms. Add in other body parts like legs, feet, hips, shoulders, head, earlobes…everything! Then when it’s time to be still, stop all movement at once and feel the energy zipping throughout your body. It’s very settling.
This is just a fraction of all the ways traditional yoga postures and practices can be utilized to encourage fine motor development in children of any age and stage. Explore more of what kids’ yoga can offer with one of our classes or workshops here at The Mindfulnest.
