{"id":24678,"date":"2024-03-08T13:07:54","date_gmt":"2024-03-08T13:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings-new\/send\/areas-of-need\/sensory-and-or-physical\/visual-impairment\/braille\/fine-motor-skills-to-support-getting-ready-to-read-braille\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T10:21:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T10:21:31","slug":"fine-motor-skills-to-support-getting-ready-to-read-braille","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/send\/areas-of-need\/sensory-and-or-physical\/visual-impairment\/braille\/fine-motor-skills-to-support-getting-ready-to-read-braille\/","title":{"rendered":"Fine motor skills to support getting ready to read braille"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Finger mobility<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Walk fingers across the table. Finger walk with index and middle fingers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Make stars with your hands &#8211; stretch your fingers out wide and then make a tight fist and repeat<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use Play dough for pinching, poking and squeezing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Post objects into a jar<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Play musical instruments especially those that need you to isolate fingers e.g. keyboard, recorder<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Screw paper into a ball with one hand<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Shredding and ripping paper<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Screw and unscrew plastic nuts and bolts<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Threading beads<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wind yoyos, wool into balls or onto a large cotton reel<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Make pom poms from circles of card and wool<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Spin hoops and different sized balls<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Isolated finger opposition<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Place objects on a tray, that offers good contrast. A bun tray works well.  Using a tray reduces the risk of objects rolling away and encourages developing good searching skills. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use thumb and each finger in turn to pick up objects e.g. lego blocks, dried beans, peas, etc and put in cups<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use tweezers to pick up objects such as paper clips, buttons, rice, sequins, dried peas etc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Take off and replace tops of pens<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Flick ping-pong ball, screwed up paper or Maltesers at a target<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Open and close clothes pegs with thumb and forefinger<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Place pegs into peg board, marbles onto the marble run etc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Turn over buttons and coins without moving them to the edge of the table.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Dynamic pencil grip<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Encourage pencil to be held in tripod grasp, \u201cpinch it\u201d or with \u201cfroggy legs\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Strong elastic band around the fingers and thumb of each hand, open and close<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hold pen in tripod grasp draw imaginary circles, lines and figures of 8 in the air.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Practise scribble patterns on paper or whiteboard. Discourage heavy handedness and tense grasp.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Learning how to use scissors<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Before holding scissors the child needs to be able to move their thumb, index and middle finger independently \u2013 bending and straightening<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Open and close tools e.g. tongs to pick up different objects<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Squeeze turkey baster to make bubbles in a bowl or draw up water and squirt<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use sponge, small pipette or eye dropper to pick up coloured water for mixing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See how far you can squirt water with squirt guns or washing up bottles<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Move onto scissors \u2013 could try the Easy Grip, Self \u2013 Opening Scissors if needed\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Correct hold gives control \u2013 thumb on top and scissors pointing away body<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Open and close without attempting to cut<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You may need to make a tactile line to provide a guide to cut &#8211; your advisory teacher can help you wit this.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Start by cutting across 1cm strips of thin card, progressing to 3cm then 10 cm<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Snip fringes in newspaper, then once able to cut across the paper<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cut within a band of 4cm then gradually reduce to cut within a thick pen line<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Put a bend one way into the 4 cm band then reduce width, repeat the other way<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Simple straight lined shapes and progress to curved lines, e.g. semicircle, circle<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gradually develop skill by cutting out more complex shapes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Activities for encouraging the use of both hands<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Anything requiring the use of both hands will help develop bilateral skills. For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Construction, Duplo, Lego, Meccano, Mega Bloks, Stickle Bricks etc<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Magnet games e.g. pull magnets apart after fishing with magnetised bait &amp; fish<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use Velcro in games so that it has to be pulled apart afterwards e.g. ball &amp; target<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wind-up toys \/ timers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use a hula hoop \u2013 will take 2 hands to hold it steady to get started<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dressing and feeding dolly \/ teddy etc<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Squeeze marble or button through small tube of material<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Open and close containers, making sure a high level of success can be achieved<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Open and close more complex containers e.g. screw top jars, draw strings bags<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Playing musical instruments e.g. keyboard, drum, recorder<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Clapping \/ catching a feather \/ bubble \/balloon etc between 2 hands<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use empty squeezy bottles to blow a ping pong ball across the room \/ table<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use squeezy bottle filled with water to draw on concrete wall outside<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Threading activities<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Place rings \/ hoops etc on the handle of a wooden spoon<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Thread washing line and large beads, buttons, pasta, Cheerios, Hula Hoops<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Thread pipe cleaners or ribbons through a colander or tennis racquet<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Creative activities<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Papier mache, junk modelling, pom pom making<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pick out number of small items from bowl of e.g. salt \/ sand\/rice. Supervise small children. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hide small objects in play dough for children to find and pull out<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cutting up pieces of paper \/ snipping bits off from a strip of card<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use potato and paint or stamps and an ink pad to stamp on small pieces of paper<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Finger puppet play<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cooking \u2013 whisking, mixing, beating, mixing or egg-beating. Wind up a timer<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Woodwork \u2013 use toy tools for hammering and sawing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ball skills<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Catch balls of different weight and size that are impossible to hold with one hand<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Throw a ball or balloon up in the air. A balloon would be easiest as it moves more slowly<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bounce a ball on the spot alternate hands<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Carry a tray with balls on and don\u2019t let them roll off<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading colRight left modules\">For more information<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\nView physical skills advice from occupational therapy team using the following link:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/childrenandfamilyhealthdevon.nhs.uk\/occupational-therapy\/school-age-therapies-toolkit\/\" rel=\"noopener\">School Age Therapies Toolkit \u2013 Children and Family Health (childrenandfamilyhealthdevon.nhs.uk)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Finger mobility Isolated finger opposition Dynamic pencil grip Learning how to use scissors Activities for encouraging the use of both hands Anything requiring the use [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2616,"featured_media":0,"parent":24674,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-24678","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-17 18:46:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2616"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24678"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35943,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24678\/revisions\/35943"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}