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April is Autism Awareness Month! All month on the blog, I’ll be focusing my posts around autism.
Today, I’m combining two things that I am really well-versed in autism and occupational therapy! I am an OT by training, and over the past 10 years as a therapist, I have worked with hundreds of autistic children and their parents. In addition to working with autistic children as a therapist, I have also had many personal connections with ASD in my life. When I was younger, I would often babysit for my neighbor and his younger sister or hang-out and play with them. I always noticed something was a little “different” with him; as an adult, I found out that he has autism. And more recently, someone in my family found out that their child has autism. The experience of having a child at home with autism can be very different from experiencing it in a clinical setting, so it has been very eye-opening for me to see these differences, and to better understand what many of the families I work with are experiencing.
I love working with autistic children and have seen first hand the difference that occupational therapy can make in a child’s life. Through my work as an OT, I have seen the struggles that many autistic children have with motor development, and I am passionate about supporting parents as they help their children through these developmental struggles.
Autistic Child’s Fine Motor Skills
Since motor development affects many other areas of development, it’s important to consider these skills and focus on developing your autistic child’s fine motor skills BEFORE bigger problems arise. Struggling with motor skills can hold your child back from doing things independently, and can also cause social problems for autistic children who are socially aware enough to be bothered by feeling “different” from the other kids. It can be hard enough to be an autistic child; having struggles and delays with motor development can really make things worse.
Today I’d like to look specifically at fine motor development. Fine motor skills involve the use of the small muscles in the fingers and hands. These skills enable your child to not only do every day tasks like using utensils or buttoning a coat, they are also important for more school-based skills, like holding a pencil and using scissors. We work a lot on these skills in the clinic, and today I’m sharing some easy and fun activities that you and your preschooler can do at home. Please note: these activities are NOT just for autistic children! All children can benefit from fine motor skill practice. However, if you are doing these activities with an autistic child, there are easy ways to adapt them to make them a bit more workable for your autistic child. Specifically, you could adapt them to simplify them and/or to add a sensory component. I’ve added notes for adaptations for each of the activities below.
5 Activities For Building Your Autistic Child’s Fine Motor Skills
Here are some helpful activities for building your autistic child’s fine motor skills:
Lacing
There are endless options here, so you can tweak this however you want to make it workable for your child. This task helps with pincer grip (using the index finger and thumb to pick up small objects) and hand-eye coordination. An easy way to do this at home would be using a pipe cleaner and Cheerios. You could also try sticking a spaghetti noodle straight up in a piece of playdough and have your child place the Cheerios onto the noodle. There are also many commercially available lacing sets. I recommend these from Top Bright, available on Amazon.
*Adaptation: consider trying a larger lacing object to start.
Tweezers
There are many options of child-friendly tweezers out there, including these from Learning Resources, available on Amazon. Set your child up with two bowls- one empty and one filled with colored pom poms. Have your child move the pom poms from one dish to the other using the tweezers. You can make this more challenging by having them also sort the pom poms by color into a muffin tin or ice cube tray. A fun one that we do in the clinic is called “Feed the Frog.” We took an old baby wipe box and used paper to make a frog face on the flip lid, and then the opening where you would pull the wipes out became the mouth. The child can then “feed the frog” the pom poms.
*Adaptation: Start with larger tweezers and pom poms. Also, consider using textured pom poms. These pom poms are glittery and colorful, making for a more interesting sensory experience!
Magazine Basketball
This one is really fun! Grab a stack of old magazines and set up a trash can on the floor and sit with your child a few feet away (or closer to start). Take turns ripping pages from the magazine, crumpling them up, and shooting them into the basket. Kids tend to enjoy the activity because tearing paper is fun (and feels a little bit naughty) and so is throwing it! In addition to being fun, it works on several skills- finger manipulation, hand strength, and hand-eye coordination.
*Adaptation: Use a larger trash can, and/or sit closer to it to start. Consider sitting on exercise balls to allow for more motion during the game. These large tactile sensory balls are great for sensory seekers.
Sponge Squeeze
This is another really fun one, especially if you have a child who enjoys the water! Grab a sponge or two from the dollar store and two bowls. Fill one with water and leave one empty. Have your child soak the sponge, then wring it out in the empty bowl, repeating until all of the water is moved from one bowl to the other. Squeezing out the sponge is a great way to build hand strength!
*Adaptation: Use a colorful or interestingly shaped sponge, or use food coloring in the water. Use a smaller sponge to make the task a little easier as needed.
Playdough
This is a super easy and fun way to help build your autistic child’s fine motor skills. You can either purchase PlayDough or try making your own. Using Playdough on its own is beneficial, but there are also countless tools that you can use with your PlayDough, both store-bought and every day, around the house items.
One option would be providing items to push into the PlayDough. Sticking items into PlayDough strengthens hand muscles and coordination. Some examples would be golf tees, candles, or toothpicks. You’re limited only by your imagination!
*Adaptation: To create a multi-sensory experience, try adding some “natural” items- leaves, herbs, and spices are all great options. You could even throw in some uncooked noodles! You could also consider making your PlayDough a fun scent using essential oils. There are a lot of recipe options online- just make sure that you research which essential oils are safe for this project!
I hope that these activities to build your autistic child’s fine motor skills are useful to you and your child! For other fine motor activities, check out my post about building pre-writing skills here. If you’ve tried these activities, or have other ideas to contribute, please join us in our FREE Facebook community to share!
As always, if you have concerns about your child’s development and would like to set up a free consultation to discuss your concerns, please reach out! I would love to help you determine your child’s individual needs. We are here to support you as you help your child blossom!
If you enjoyed reading, 5 Activities To Build Your Autistic Child’s Fine Motor Skills, you might also like to read:
Teaching Stranger Danger To Kids With Autism
5 Tips to Boost Language Development in Kids with Down Syndrome
