Pre-scissors skills —Stringing and Lacing

My son walked independently

at his 28-month. During the period he struggled to reach one of the most important gross motor milestones, I knew I couldn't take him to see the world on his own feet. But I knew I could bring the world to his hands. Here it is when I understood how important fine motor skills are for a child's development because fine motor skills support cognition, gross motors, communication and self-care skills. Tommy has always been fine motor driven, so I followed his lead. I helped him to strength his fine muscles, which has allowed him to reach fine motor milestones according to his age.

Tommy and I began to work

occasionally

on stringing large beads by the end of June. Since the beginning, Tommy just needed little help to hold the bead while he was stringing the wooden pole through the bead with the other hand. On August 1st, Tommy stringed three beads by himself for the first time. Tommy accomplished the fine motor milestone of stringing three large beads at his 28 months (age-appropriate).

Currently, we are doing this activity in short period of time during the week or when Tommy feels like to because it is not one of his favorite activities. To make this activity more interesting and fun for him, I make the car sounds when we play with the Alex toy stringing large bead set. I created a home-made stringing set that I named 'caterpillar stringing bead set,' so I tell Tommy the caterpillar is going to get him and he likes to imitate with the beads how the caterpillar moves. Tommy is currently able to string large beads, small beads with big and small holes, as well as, strings with different thickness.

Home-made stringing bead set

I also created home made lacing cards to strength Tommy's fine muscles and eye-hand coordination. I searched on-line for printable lacing cards and I found Activity Village. This website has print ready PDF files with cute animal lacing cards and instructions how to make them. He enjoys this activity, which I also use for language development. He has says "Pull" several times when he is pulling the thread through the hole. Because this in activity for older kids, Tommy put the thread through the holes he prefers.

Lacing cards from ActivityVillage.com

Our OT is very happy that Tommy is fine motor driven. She is very pleased with the progress Tommy has made; therefore, she decreased services for Tommy.

Video of Tommy stringing large beads

Video of Tommy saying 'PULL'

Video of Tommy

stringing small beads

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