In Hand Manipulation Skills

Once again I am expanding on the "Secrets to Good Handwriting" post from a few months back by addressing in hand manipulation skills.  Remember that developing all of the skills mentioned in that original post (dated 5-28-13) will positively affect your child's fine motor skills. Think of those skills mentioned as the building blocks of fine motor skills.

In Hand Manipulation Skills
In hand manipulation refers to the ability to shift objects within your hand using just the fingers.  Sometimes we do this when we are holding an object and looking at it, or shifting a small item in our hand to place it somewhere.  Being able to do this depends on mobility and coordinated movements at the base joints of your fingers (or, what is commonly referred to as your knuckles).  Kids who have difficulty with this are often dropping smaller items that they are handling.  Sometimes they use 2 hands together instead of just one hand for a task. You may also see that they will put an object down on the table top and then pick it up again because they are not able to orient the object just so.   Think about how often you use your own hand in this manner-  when you reach into your pocket and pull out a specific coin, when you push a push pin into a bulletin board, when you pick up a pencil and orient it with your fingers for writing.  I won’t go into all of the movements that are made possible by in hand manipulation.  I will just give you some ideas on how to address working on them with your child/students:

• Playing with playdough or clay-  make small items with it, pinch and roll small pieces into a ball
• String beads, play with lacing cards
• Place two pennies and two paper clips in palm of hand. Try to move one penny to fingertips and place on table without using other hand, then one paper clip, and so on.
• Place pennies or buttons into slots-  put coins into a piggy bank, cut a slit into into the plastic lid of a margarine container or a tennis ball and push the coins through the slit.
• Flip a pencil or coin over and over in fingertips
• Pegs and pegboards- if the pegs are smaller/thin, the child can hold a few pegs in their hand while placing each one into the board

• Hold a small plastic cup filled with water (the lid from liquid laundry detergent works well for this) upright in the tips of fingers. Turn the lid without spilling by turning it in fingertips.
• Save a used parmesan cheese container- push small pompoms into the small holes in the cover. Start by having 3 or 4 pompoms in the hand and have the child single each one out using their fingers for placement into the holes
• Push push pins into a bulletin board- lay a piece of paper with a simple design on it (such as the outline of a star) on the board and push the pins into the board along the outline of the shape