In this lesson, we are going to discuss the WHY of this course. So, why is fine motor development so important anyways? The main answer besides it being an essential part of early childhood development is that it is the precursor to writing development. A small child cannot just pick up a pencil and start writing. There are several skills that must be mastered before this is possible. Children have the most success when these muscles are properly developed, and these hand skills are grown. If these skills are not properly developed, habits can be formed that will be hard to undo. These include improper pencil grasp and forming letters and numbers incorrectly. It’s better to build a strong foundation than to rush a child to write. We should be teaching a variety of age-appropriate lessons with developmentally appropriate fine motor skills practice before a child ever picks up a pencil and paper. In fact, in my class, we do not use pencils at all (aside from colored pencils) and instead use crayons due to their resistance and help in building these muscles.

Now let's also talk about WHY this has become a bigger issue in recent years. Think about what you used to play with as a child. Did you go outside and run around for hours on end? Did you climb from trees or monkey bars? What are some aspects of our lives that have changed in the last couple of decades? One HUGE one is technology! While technology has helped our lives in so many ways, it has had a negative impact on others. Think about this, how many muscles does it take to swipe on an IPad as opposed to drawing on the sidewalk with chalk? Children today tend to use less of these muscles than in years past and therefore teachers are now needing to provide consistent practice in this area.