Fine motor skills are involved in smaller movements of muscles. These movements usually occur in the wrists, hands, fingers, feet and toes, even in the eyes and ears. They involve smaller actions such as picking up small objects, writing carefully, and even blinking. These two motor skills work together to provide coordination. Fine motor skill is the synchronization of hands and fingers with the eyes. It helps to enhance the manual work of the human body, and in order to ensure this manual dexterity, one needs to ensure proper exercise, maintenance and control of such muscles by aiding the nervous system through different activities.
As scientific and verbose the aforementioned information must sound, you need not be overwhelmed by it. The entire notion of improving your fine motor skills is associated with the fun little activities and exercises that you can incorporate in your daily life. Though it is highly recommended to start working on fine motor skills, one can always take a step into the healthy lifestyle at whatever point in their lives they can. In order to aid you with your journey towards a healthy body and a healthy, dexterous nervous system, we have found a fun and a productive way: through crafts! Here is a list of different crafts which aid in the development and improvement of fine motor skills:
Diamond Painting | Paint with Diamonds
Diamond painting is a relatively new crafts form that is an amalgamation of Paint-By-Numbers (yes, the one mentioned below!) and cross stitch. Introduced in 2015, diamond painting became widely famous in the world of crafts due to the involved thrill of using tiny sparkling “diamonds” or drills that one can stick to the adhesive canvas. Each canvas has a high definition image on it that has been broken down so that it is divided into multiple small sections. Each small section is an indicator for a certain colored diamond that can be placed there. As a result of continuous sticking of diamonds, one can get a beautiful mosaic canvas as the end result. Diamond painting involves dexterity and concentration. It’s easy “pick and stick” method is an amazing stimulant for making the fine motor skills function properly. As a result, diamond painting definitely can be classified as a craft for improving and ensuring the proper functioning of fine motor skills. One can get a diamond painting kit from the online store paintwithdiamonds which hosts a plethora of canvases that one can choose from!
Beading
Due to the small size and round shape, beads become important stimulants for activating fine motor skills as one goes to pick them up. Using beads as a craft ingredient is a great way of engaging your motor skills. One can find a vast majority of crafts that involve the use of beads. Each craft is different and bold in its own sense, as it utilizes the maximum movement of the muscles involved in keeping our fine motor skills active. From making bracelets to threading beads for making suncatchers, beads are our go-to craft makers! Here are a few DIYs that you can check out to help your motor skills using beads!
Embroidery
Embroidery serves as a great activity to improve and polish fine motor skills of a person. The reason is that embroidery involves care, concision and concentration which are the three aspects involved in proper functioning of fine muscles that are present in the human body. Embroidery involves threading the thread or yarn into the needle, which is the first step of starting embroidery and is also an activity highly encouraged by doctors for the sake of improving fine motor skills. Not only that, the continual threading and stitching as well as the concentration required to follow a pattern that will be a beautiful design in the end is the reason why embroidery is such an amazing craft that requires minimal materials but maximum output in terms of helping one’s fine motor skills. And it is also easy to learn!
Paint-By-Numbers
Paint-By-Numbers is a crafts project that involves light markings on the canvas that indicate what to paint and where exactly. As a result, people are able to create stunning art pieces without having the basic art education. It is a very engaging art form that helps one to figure out their passion for painting and lets beginner level artists explore their domains. the fact that there are light markings that one has to adhere to while painting is the primary reason for including Paint-By-Numbers in this list for improving fine motor skills. In addition to the use of eye and hand muscles here, one also has to employ thinking and logical skills while matching the color on the palette given with the markings on the canvas, so that the painting comes out perfect. Paint-By-Numbers kits are available on online stores, such as the amazing Paint By Numbers for Adults which hosts a huge variety of canvases to choose from as well as lots of tips, tricks and tutorials for the sake of ease.
3D Cards
Card making has always been an amazing craft that serves as a great pastime. The reasons are many: colors, cutting, sticking, pasting, drawing – everything draws appeal to humans and engaging ourselves in activities that require brain and physical activity always helps to ground us. As a result, card making is the most common craft that people tend to take up. However, by moving it up a notch, one can make it even more interesting, and that is where 3D cards come in! 3D cards require certain cutting, folding and pasting techniques that involve our fine motor skills, and end up helping us create stunning cards that are perfect for giving to friends, family and loved ones! 3D cards are a bit trickier to make, however, the end product is almost always a thrill to hold in your hands, especially when you are reminded that you have created this piece of craft. One can easily find lots of tips, tricks and techniques for making 3D cards, such as the instructions given here!
Origami
Origami is the art of paper folding, which is often associated with Japanese culture. However, now in modern usage, the word “origami” is used as an inclusive term for all such folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin. Origami involves the skillful art of folding paper into different shapes that one can easily model into small paper sculptures, which in itself is an enthralling experience. By the use of fingers, eyes and logical techniques, origami easily makes our list of crafts for fine motor skills. Not only that, it can also help you create mini paper models that you can use to decorate your room! Origami is an easy craft that one can take up, and here is an instruction manual that can help you do so!
The aforementioned crafts are quite easy to take on and most end up becoming a hobby. On top of that, these crafts serve as proper stimulants to improve one’s fine motor skills, which is an important aspect of a healthy living. Using these crafts, if one can improve the working of their muscular and nervous system, then why not start doing them? Happy crafting!