Fine motor skills are an important part of child development. They prepare children not only for writing, an everyday skill, but also for eating, dressing, and other important self-help skills. Here are some skills your child 0-2 years old should be exhibiting:
Birth to 3 months
- Hand to Mouth
- Reflexive grasp (Place a finger in your child’s palm. Child should automatically hold your finger)
- Visually Tracking High contrast toys (Red, black, and white have been shown to be the most intriguing to this group). Tracking center (midline) to side (both left and right)
3-6 months
- Swipes at dangling objects
- Follows moving objects with eyes (3-5 seconds is a typical attention span)
- Recognizes bottle
- Grasp and shakes rattle
6-9 months
- Raking small objects
- Clapping
- Poking finger in hole
- Transfer object from one hand to another
- Explores toys with hands and mouth
9-12 months
- Pincer grasp (a three finger approach to picking up things like cheerios)
- Removes socks
- Removes 2-3 pegs from peg board
- Puts objects in and takes them out of containers
- 30 second visual and auditory attention span
12-24 months
- Opens book, turns single page
- Tapping spoon
- Helps with dressing
- Plays quietly 5-10 minutes
- 5 minute plus attention span with a single toy
- Stacks 2-6 blocks
- Dumps objects out of a container
- Scribbles in imitation of vertical stroke
- Inserts three shapes into shape sorter
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