The pincer grasp is the coordination of the index finger and thumb to hold an item. Each time you hold a pen or button your shirt, you’re using the pincer grasp.
Pincer grasp is a hand grasp that develops around the time a baby is 8-10 months old. This grasp corresponds to the time a baby is beginning to feed themselves finger foods. The pincer grasp is needed in order to grasp a small item, pinch it between the index and thumb and bring it to the mouth.
On a thick piece of paper, draw a line.
Give your child a bowl of beans, beads, buttons, or large seeds.
Ask the child to place them one after the other on the line you drew.
For grading, you can make the task a little more difficult with a circle, or any other shape. In addition, you could ask the child to use tweezers to pick up and line up the items on the line.
For this activity you could use different types of fruit and vegetables. If the child has difficulty completing the activity with potatoes, you can use a softer fruit like bananas.
Cover a strip of thick cardboard or card, and draw boxes like those shown in the picture.
Cut small potatoes into halves and quarters so that they can stand without rocking or tipping.
Place one potato wedge on every box and number each box.
Now your child can stick in the right number of toothpicks into each potato.
For grading: Use random numbers instead of numbers in a sequence.
Fill the plastic container with rice and/or beans.
Hide the puzzle pieces in the rice/beans mixture.
Have the child search for the pieces using his hands (if the child is tacitly sensitive, you may try to put gloves on his hands or let him use tongs or tweezers).
Once the child has all the pieces, ask the child to put the puzzle together.
On a brown construction paper, trace the child’s hand or have the child trace his own hand using the pen/markers/crayons.
Make sure the thumb is extended and the fingers are spread apart while tracing the hand.
Let the child cut the traced hand. This will be the turkey’s body.
Glue the traced hand in the middle of the paper plate.
Use one bean as the turkey’s eye and glue it on the traced thumb. On the rest of the fingers, let the child glue feathers.
Take a piece of orange or red tissue paper and let the child crumble it. Glue the crumbled piece as the turkey’s wattle.
Using the markers or the crayon, let the child draw the turkey’s legs.
Tape some ribbon around each cup. Use different ribbon colors for each paper cup.
Cut a few pieces of each color of ribbon.
Put the ribbon pieces in the container.
Ask the child to sort the pieces of ribbon, using the first three digits (thumb, pointer, and middle finger) and put the ribbons into the right container.
For grading: ask the child to use tweezers for picking up the ribbons and dropping each to the right cup.
