Do you know how important your child’s thumbs are?

Thumbs are the smallest digit on our hand, but they have the most muscles and – due to the unique formation of the joint that connects it to our palm – it can move in a wider range of directions than any other finger or toe. But why should you care about this, and why is it so important for your child to develop their thumb movements? 

As humans, we have opposable thumbs, meaning that they can rotate and pivot (move around a fixed point) – it’s called ‘opposable’ because this movement allows your thumb to be moved to be ‘opposite’ your other fingers. This allows us to be far more mobile in our hands than we would if our thumb was ‘fixed’ in one position. 

Why is it so important that we have opposable thumbs, and how does your child develop this skill? 

Being able to use their thumb with all of their fingers, and in different ways, supports your child with many tasks that will make their life easier as they grow, like being able to fasten a zip, use a pencil, take off a lid or pick a piece of fruit from a bowl. 

It works in harmony with hand-eye coordination to enable us to do lots of the tricky, fine motor tasks we use throughout our lives, so we know it is an important skill for children to learn.  

The good news is, you don’t need to create special opportunities just to practise thumb and finger opposition.  

This is a skill they will have been working on since birth and they will have developed the start of thumb opposition (in most cases) just before their first birthday. Over time, they will build up the muscles, and develop the bones, needed to reach full strength in their hands, fingers and thumbs.  

Your child is still developing this skill now; in most cases, they will be doing so until around the age of five. 

They do this simply by growing (some of the bones in your child’s hand and wrist are still forming throughout their first five years of life) and strengthening those new bones and muscles by using their hands day-to-day – things like holding objects, eating, dressing, pointing, wiggling fingers and waving are all building up those muscles.  

Making sure they have lots of opportunity to press, squeeze, wiggle and grip using their thumb and fingers will help them in this journey without them even realising that they’re learning. Embrace the importance of their thumb and give them a big thumbs up for being so powerful!