In general, children with developmental delays mostly have motor problems, both gross and fine motor skills are clumsy, but the various activities necessary for daily life are absolutely demanding fine motor skills, such as dexterity of the hands or fingers. As a result, children who are stunted naturally become self-reliant later in daily life.
1. What are fine motor skills?
The so-called fine motor skills refer to grasping, finger manipulation, two-hand coordination, hand-eye coordination, hand muscle strength, dexterity, etc.
Objectives of the Fine Activity:
It can be set to learn daily life skills, but when learning life skills, you still need to be careful not to learn too difficult content. It should not be detached from the child's interests, and it is necessary to try to meet the child's requirements, and it is necessary to develop a training plan.
Fine motor skills are not intensively developed in early childhood, but are slowly learned through daily repetition, especially those children who are stunted, in order to become socially independent in the future, even if they have entered puberty, they can still be honed through manipulation exercises.
2. Pay attention to children's interests
Many daily life actions are difficult to arouse children's interest, so we can often see adults desperately asking children to do it, but children have no will at all, and only adults are left in a hurry.
Hand and finger skills are not only trained through programs that contain strong training elements, but also by making the most of the games that interest the child, and finding ways to make a little bit of a transition like the movements of everyday life, which is actually the most important place.
3. Praise your child for his or her outstanding performance
When training, we should pay attention not to be too scattered, but to control the project within a relatively concentrated range, otherwise it will be difficult for the child to have the kind of sense of accomplishment that I can do, and the forced training may not have any good effect.
4. Gain life skills in the game
There are many good results by constantly repeating those games that improve the function of the hands and fingers. The trainer's task is to consider how the results of these exercises can be used to improve the child's skills in everyday life.
For example, when a child learns to put a ring on a stick, he can pin a ring to the back of the shoe and pull it to make it easier to put on and take off the shoe. In this way, if you look for situations in your life that are related to games and daily life skills, and train them together, you will be able to learn a variety of fine motor skills.
5. Simple finger exercises
You can do finger exercises in the form of a game, and the gameplay: do the corresponding movements while reciting nursery rhymes, and hide your hands behind before reciting nursery rhymes. Here are two simple examples:
1. My little hands change, change, change
01- My little hands change, change, change (clapping while talking)
02- Changing the pistol to snap, snap, snap (both hands to shoot with a gun)
03- Change scissors to cut, scissors, scissors (make scissors with both hands)
04- Turning into a chick, chirping, chirping (the thumbs and index fingers of both hands touch, and the other three fingers are bent and clenched to make a chick mouth, one up and down)
05- Transform into a duckling, quack, quack (the palm of the right hand is pressed against the back of the left hand to make a duckling with a flat beak)
06- Fly, fly, fly (hold the palm of your right hand with your left hand, stick your thumbs together, and put your four fingers together to imitate the bird's flight)
2. Two good friends
01- Two good friends, (hands clenched into fists, index fingers outstretched)
02- Take a walk (one index finger on the other, alternate)
03- Nodding when they meet, (two index fingers bent towards each other)
04- Shake hands again. (Two index finger pulls)
3. Points to note during training
In the training, we should fully consider the baby's age, cerebral palsy type, severity, deformity, intelligence level, willingness to learn, existing functional conditions and other factors, and formulate a practical training plan;
Note: The article is for the purpose of popular science, and some of the content and pictures are from the Internet.
Guangzhou Angel Children's Hospital
A healthy child, a happy family!