Skill: Hand Dexterity

How skillful and quick the fingers are when handling small objects. Good dexterity helps with tying shoes, handling coins, and manipulating fasteners.

Pom pom Bird

For this activity, you will need 3 pom-poms in different sizes. You can use almost any pom-pom color.

Start by instructing the child to cut an oval shape out of the cardboard (length should be about 2″ – 3″).

Glue the large pom-pom (red) to the oval-shaped cardboard. This will be the bird’s body.

Glue the medium pom-pom (red) on top of the large pom-pom. This will be the bird’s head.

Glue the smallest pom-pom (yellow) to the medium pom-pom forming a bird’s beak.

Glue the wiggle eyes above the beak.

Small Button Box

Take 4oz putty container or container of equal size with a lid and use scissors or box cutter to slice a 2 inch x 1/8 or 1/4 inch rectangular slot into the top of the lid.

Place sticky back Velcro hook on bottom of container. Wrap a Velcro hook strap around the child’s chest or abdomen. The small constructed “Button Box” is placed on the Velcro strap on the child. The angle of the slot can be changed to suit the child’s abilities or needs.

Have the child use appropriate grasp to pick up buttons or coins of various sizes and place into the button box on self.

This activity can be modified in many ways to suit the child’s needs:
– Adjusting size or shape of the slot to accommodate the items placed inside.
– Weights can be used for upper extremity strengthening.
– Markers can be used to provide color around slot hole for children with Visual Perceptual difficulties.
– The items placed in the slots can vary in size, shape, density, and texture for added ease or difficulty

Paper Roll Sheep

Cut out an oval for the head of the sheep from the construction paper using the scissors.

The oval should be about half the length of the toilet roll tube.

Stick masking tape on the underside of the head and stick onto the inside of the tube. Then put some on the top of the head and onto the top of the tube.

Paint the head using black paint and stick on the wiggle eyes.

Take the masking tape and stick two of the sticks on each side of the tube to create legs.

Cover the tube in glue and stick on the cotton balls.

Colorful Bookmark

Let the child trace or draw a 3″ x 10″ rectangle (if you want to work on cutting curves, you may draw wiggly lines instead of straight ones). Have the child cut the rectangle out.

Using a single hole hole-puncher, assist the child in punching a hole in the top part of the rectangle. Then, have the child thread a piece of yarn through the hole.

Using the markers and stickers, let the child decorate the bookmark and make it colorful.

Additional ideas for decorating the bookmark:
1. Have the child crumble small pieces of tissue paper
2. Cut/trace a 2.5″ x 9″ rectangle with white printer paper, and glue onto the center within the 3″ x 10″ construction paper.
3. Have the child cut out pictures that he likes from newspaper and magazines
4. Laminate the bookmarks to preserve them!

Dot Dot Paint

Draw a picture on the construction paper. The picture could be anything that the child likes.

Provide the child with different colors of Tempera Paint.

Use the q-tips to paint your picture by dipping the tips into the paint and making little dots on your picture.