While strength, endurance and stamina develop continuously from birth, some children are not ready for the rigors of school. Skills for kindergarten are an important part of early development, learn more about what skills to watch for!
Some children have weak hands due to lower-than-normal muscle tone, birth injuries or other diagnosis or disorders. Other children have the potential for normal hand strength, however they need additional exposure to gross and fine motor activities.
By nature of the “back to sleep” protocol, babies are not automatically working on neck and shoulder strength from birth on. Tummy Time is essential for these early strength and endurance muscles to develop while the baby is an infant. Our electronic devices also have the potential to reduce the amount of strength and endurance needed of our children’s early hand skills. Swiping a screen is very different than pushing and pulling apart toys, turning knobs, stringing beads and squeezing Play Doh. There is a decline in traditional childhood play activities. All of these early hand skills prepare your child for school.
Hand strength and skills that are needed for kindergarten include, but are not limited to:
- Holding a pencil, crayon or marker correctly
- Being able to color, or write for an extended period of time
- Using both hands together to hold their backpack while zipping and unzipping
- Zipping their jacket
- Buttons on clothing
- Cutting with scissors
- Opening food packages at lunch
- Isolating their index finger to punch in their lunch or library number
- Hanging from the monkey bars with peers
- Turning the pages of a book.
- Maintaining an upright seated posture
- Using utensils at lunch
- Completing art projects
For a full list of fine motor activities and developmental milestones see the attached link:
Thank you for reading!