Fine motor skills are the small and precise movements we make with our hands, fingers, feet and toes. They let us do everyday tasks through complex coordination of muscles, nerves and joints to completed skills such as handwriting, cutting, opening containers, tying shoelaces, using buttons/zips and pressing buttons.
As a child grows, they are expected to develop skills within certain time frames and each stage of development often assumes the preceding stages have been achieved. A bit like a domino line. When one of the dominoes does not go down, others after it may not fall either. Some reasons why a child might be not be meeting their milestones may be neurological, neurodevelopmental, genetic, physical, sensory, and/or another reason. The sooner the child is assessed and supported, the better their outcomes are likely to be.
Intervention includes exploring countless options for modification of both tasks and environments to make them more accessible, as well as therapeutic support where the child’s skills are targeted and built. The goal of OT within fine motor skills should be to work towards self-sufficiency and independence in the tasks that involve the fine motor skills.
