The best way to fine tune your child’s reading skills is to find time to practice every day. And most kids learn better when they’re doing something they want to do, not because they have to. These kid-approved activities and games are fun and help build reading skills. They’re simple enough to make part of your routine: during playtime, at meals and snacks, or when you’re out and about.
These kid-approved activities and games are fun and help build reading skills. They’re simple enough to make part of your routine: during playtime, at meals and snacks, or when you’re out and about.
Recommended Activities
Your child at this age may begin to isolate fingers to perform different tasks. A fun activity to help your child work on the fine motor muscles needed to use for writing and drawing is ripping and tearing up magazines and/or paper.
Your child at this stage of beginning writing may be starting to favor the use of one hand. When offered markers or crayons, your toddler can begin to scribble or make marks, which will eventually turn into letters.
Using the thumb and index finger to pick up objects is a big advancement in fine motor development. It is these early experiences that prepare your child to have the fine motor and eye-hand coordination she will need later for drawing and writing.
Songs that involve finger and hand movements encourage eye-hand coordination. They are not only fun but can enhance the fine motor development needed to learn to write.
By around the fifth month, infants are learning to voluntarily grasp and release objects. Give your baby lots of opportunities to practice improving the fine motor and eye-hand coordination she will need later for drawing and writing.
A fine motor skill milestone for a baby at this age includes working on and developing better muscle strength and control. You can help with this developmental milestone by promoting reaching for and releasing objects.
Reaching, grasping, shaking and dropping a toy aids your child in learning to grasp with all of her fingers at the same time an important fine motor skill needed for eye-hand coordination and eventually for controlling and holding writing tools.
Activities that help your child build and create will help her to become ready to engage in skills such as drawing, writing and cutting. Playing with puzzles increases eye-hand coordination and visual discrimination, and strengthens finger muscles.
Your child at this stage of beginning writing may be learning to grasp a crayon with his thumb and finger and begin to imitate scribbles, circles and vertical lines. These beginning fine motor activities lay the foundation needed for learning how to hold a pencil and write his name.
Sing the alphabet song with your child. This is an early exposure to the alphabet, and at this age you can just have fun singing this popular tune.
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