Little Fingers

Colourful Pasta

Motor development (fine and gross) is of fundamental importance because it is what allows children to be independent. We mostly associate fine motor skills with the right pencil grip and engaging in creative or table-top activities. But fine motor skills are way more essential than that. They are what allow kids to be independent in activities of daily living — kids need good fine motor skills to brush their teeth, get dressed, eat food and so on.

When we think of what it means to have good fine motor skills we mostly think of accuracy. But in order to have that accuracy, kids also need to build up their fine motor strength and endurance. Fine motor skills involve the use of the muscles in the hands, fingers and thumbs.

There are different fine motor grasps — the main ones are: mass/palmar/power (fist — like when your child holds your finger), pincer (thumb and index finger — a pinch), lateral (the thumb against the side of the index finger — what you do when you unlock a door with a key), cylindrical (tips of the fingers — opening a bottle), pointer (a finger push — switching on a light), raking (only the fingers and not the thumb — carrying a shopping bag), and pencil grasp.

Fine motor activities can be the ones we don't like doing with our kids because we think they require admin and prep. But if you think of them for what they actually are, they don't only have to be done while sitting at a table. Encouraging independence in, and getting your kids to help with everyday tasks is a great way to facilitate these skills. The next time you need to hang washing, wipe the counter, wash the dishes, weed the garden, turn the pages of the book you are reading to them, unlock a door, switch on a light — get your kids to join in and help you because all of this will develop their fine motor skills.

In the instructions below, FM means fine-motor and FMS means fine-motor skills.

Instructions

I'm a fan of this activity because it's like play-doh but better. Not only is it brilliant for FMS but there is a great reward at the end, it involves your kids in all the steps, and it's fun for any parents facilitating. You can make enough to give to your neighbour as a gift. It's a nice weekend activity if you want to do it all on one day. Alternatively, make the dough with them on one day (this is a brilliant late afternoon activity when everyone needs to wind down), store it in the fridge overnight and roll and form the pasta shapes the next day. I recommend splitting the activity.

Making the dough

(Facilitates mass grasps, hand and arm strength)

The quantities given are enough for one adult-sized portion so just make as many balls of dough as you need for everyone in your household. You should make a dough ball at the same time to demonstrate the steps to your kids.

  • Put the flour, water and a few drops of food colouring into the bowl; combine with a spoon until there is no dry flour left and a rough dough ball has formed (don't worry if the food colouring isn't fully incorporated).
  • Leave the dough to rest in the bowl for 10 minutes (perfect amount of time to do a feelings wheel check-in).
  • Take it out of the bowl and place on a dry surface (not floured), knead the dough for about 10 minutes until well-combined and smooth. Make this fun by using different actions like kneading, punching, walking fingers over the dough, getting bigger kids to help little ones.
  • Wrap the ball tightly in plastic wrap and leave to rest for 30 minutes (if doing it all on the same day) or refrigerate overnight.

Rolling the dough

(Facilitates mass grasps and endurance)

  • Start by getting the kids to push their dough ball flat-ish with the palms of their hands.
  • Then roll out as thin as possible using a rolling pin, bottle, or pasta machine if you have one (still get them to roll it out a bit before putting it through the machine).
  • If they get bored with the rolling — turn it into a game where you roll your dough for 20 seconds and then everyone moves around the table to their right and has to roll the next one for 20 seconds.

Forming the pasta

(Facilitates finer finger grasps and inner-hand strength)

A great FM and fail-proof shape is the "bow tie". Once the dough is rolled out into a large sheet:

  • Using a butter knife or pizza cutter, get your kids to cut it into rectangles that are roughly 2cm wide and 3cm long. The easiest way is by cutting long 2cm-wide strips and then cutting the 3cm lengths from the strips.
  • Take each rectangle and pinch the middle section together (using the thumb and index finger — the most predominant FM grasp) to make the bow-ties.
  • Once you have enough, sprinkle the bow ties with a little bit of flour and toss them so that they don't get sticky before cooking.

Get creative with shapes

Your kids won't want to make a million bow ties — the possibilities are endless and you can facilitate so many FMS:

  • Roll a diamond-shape around a pencil to make penne
  • Cut circles or other shapes with cookie cutters
  • Roll skinny worms
  • Combine off-cuts of the dough and roll it out to make unicorn/rainbow pasta which you cut into wide strips or twist into a unicorn horn
  • Roll into tiny balls