Your two-year-old may have just started enthusiastically running; jumping and even saying “No!” to just about every question you pose. While running and jumping are good for their development it is also important to recognize the need for fine motor skill development. This is especially true for young boys who tend to have difficulty sitting still to color. Experts say that at this age children can start participating in activities that will help them develop fine motor skills. Fine motor skills include precise thumb, finger, hand, and wrist movements that are practiced through tracing, scribbling, painting, cutting and pasting and most especially coloring. Often parents overlook the need to help their children develop their fine motor skills. At about two years old parents can be enjoying reading to their toddlers and playing ball at the park. These activities will help develop their child’s vocabulary, hand-eye coordination and gross motor skills; but it is also important to take some time at this age to do crafts together to help develop their fine motor skills.
At the age of two most children will become delighted to start coloring (as opposed to earlier attempts at just scribbling). They will feel a sense of accomplishment at being able to hold a crayon and draw and color the shapes and images they want to create. It is important to understand though that two-year olds have notoriously short attention spans and can become easily frustrated. It is important to plan activities that will challenge them for a short amount of time but also have a satisfactory result. In order to build your child’s confidence it may help to determine what the more complicated skills are then break them down into attainable steps for your child. This will gradually build your child’s confidence in tackling the more advanced stages of motor skills. Keep in mind that you do not want to push them; only help prepare them so that down the road, they will be able to use a pencil with ease. Here are some ideas for helping your two-year develop fine motor skills-
Tagged as: child development, developing fine motor skills, helping two-year olds, helping two-year olds develop, two-year olds
