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How to Help Your Child Improve Their Scissor Skills
Using
scissors is one of the great challenges that every child faces somewhere
along the line between holding a pencil and starting school. If you are
brave enough to allow your child to use scissors at home, they will be
getting lots of practice. But sometimes, that just isn’t enough to ensure
that your little one’s scissor grip is at its best.
Below
we have put together a few ideas that will assist your child in
developing strong fine motor muscles (essential for cutting and writing),
whilst also giving them some fun activities to try.
Test
out the following:
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Encourage your child to develop a cutting action by
playing with barbecue tongs. Put a few small objects
(balls, teddies, dummies, blocks, etc) around the table
and have a game to see who can pick the most up.
-
Encourage your child to squeeze play dough through a
garlic press.
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Sing finger action songs with your child, the movements
strengthen fingers to help with holding scissors and pencils.
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Give your child a spray bottle filled with water and let
them spray it around the garden.
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Put out chopsticks at meal times for your child to try.
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Give your child play dough regularly to squeeze and roll
and push. It strengthens little muscles and feels great.
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Help your child to punch holes in cardboard with a hole
punch.
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Have an adult hold a thin strip of paper so that your
child can cut across it with a single snip.
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Encourage your child to gently snip the edges of paper
so that it makes a fringe. Use your new fringing skill
to make a hat or use the fringing strips to decorate art
work or craft.
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Cut thin paper strips to make grass for a collage.
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Draw a thick line on some cardboard and have your child cut,
following the line. As your child improves, make the
lines squiggly, or draw large shapes for them to cut
around.
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