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Fine motor skills are an aspect of your child’s development that begins with their earliest movements. You may observe them grasping onto your finger or sucking their own hands when they're a tiny baby. As they grow, you might notice them exploring objects with their hands or starting to hold the bottle they're drinking from. These are all the very early stages of fine motor skills in young children.

Fine motor skill is something that begins developing as soon as your child is born, and children make numerous fine motor milestones throughout their early childhood. As they begin to experiment and master their new skills, there is a wide range of methods and activities that can support their fine motor development. Many ideas can be found for every stage of fine motor development on the My First Five Years app, as well as detailed breakdowns on each small stage of development along the way. 

It’s a proud moment when your child first masters the art of handwriting their own name. But don’t despair if your child isn’t ready to put pen to paper. It’s a hugely complex task that requires coordinating the movements in the eye with the small muscles in the wrists – and it takes years to refine.

What is a fine motor skill?

Fine motor skills are small, detailed movements that involve using the tendons and cartilage in your wrists, hands, fingers, and thumbs. They are slight movements that we don’t give much thought to. However, they are complex and involve the coordination of the eyes, brain and muscles to allow us to develop movements such as holding, grasping, pinching, and releasing small objects. They are thought to be essential in supporting children’s overall learning and development.