17 Mar Is your child  struggling with fine motor skills like dressing and feeding themselves with utensils

Is your child  struggling with fine motor skills like dressing and feeding themselves with utensils
Has your child’s teacher mentioned that their handwriting is messy and they are struggling to complete their school work

Wondering what can you do to help your child improve their fine motor skills to make dressing easier in the mornings when you are trying to get out of the house quickly? Stability at the shoulder muscles is an essential component for coordination, postural control and fine motor skill development. Basically anytime you move your hand and fingers you need your upper body and shoulders to either stabilize or actively contract. Upper body exercises for kids and shoulder strengthening activities can help children develop the muscles necessary for so many skills such as handwriting, playing catch, reaching, picking up small objects and more.

3 Great activities that you can do with your child to help them strengthen their shoulder muscles to improve their fine motor skills:
1. Lying on their tummy propped on their elbows to colour, draw or read. It is important that your child does not lay their head down on the ground as this does not strengthen their shoulder muscles.

2. Wheelbarrow using a Gymball. Have your child lying over a gymball and walk on their hands forwards 3-5 steps and then backwards to their starting point. Hold your child’s legs to help them stay on the Gymball when walking forward and backwards.

3. Tug-a-War with an elastic exercise band is a fun way to activate shoulder and tummy muscles. This activity can be done in sitting or standing depending how coordinated your child is.

Try out these fun activities with your child today and Comment below to let us know how you go!
If you are concerned about your child’s balance and coordination, ring My Favourite Physio on (02) 9790 4233 or DM us @myfavouritephysio to speak to one of our Expert Paediatric Physiotherapists today!

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