“Build skills one page at a time with Fine Motor ABC; 26 targeted activities to develop foundational and functional fine motor skills.”
If you’ve been following along with us for a while, you’ll have noticed that our crafts and activities, while fun and creative, are also intended to hone certain skills to help prepare the hooligans for kindergarten. Fine motor development is often the focus. The children may not realize it, but almost every art activity, science experiment and craft that I present to them, contains an element of fine motor development.
Because I feel strongly about the importance of helping children develop these skills though playful learning, I was thrilled when Stacie Erfle, a pediatric occupational therapist, shared her new book, Fine Motor ABC with me. I was so impressed with Stacie’s fun and comprehensive activities, and her desire to provide parents and teachers with a deeper understanding of the how’s and why’s behind them, that I’ve invited her over to tell us more about her book, and the purpose that it serves for both children and adults.
Thanks for joining us today, Stacie! Take it away!
Fine Motor Skills – Why Ask Why?
A quick Google search will lead to endless possible activities to build fine motor skills. Pinterest is full of imaginative activities to get kids creating with their hands. In this digital world, there is definitely no lack of ideas of WHAT to do. However, in the focus on the WHAT, it can be easy to lose the WHY.
Fine motor activities done without knowing the WHY behind them are still beneficial for the child, after all, their fingers and hands are still being challenged and their brains are working to integrate the new experience. However, when the adult leading the charge isn’t quite sure why the activity matters or why it should done a certain way, it is much harder for them to place value on the task and be encouraged to continue providing the child with opportunities to further develop their skills.
Knowledge empowers parents and educators
It is said that knowledge is power. It is time to give power to the parents, power to the teachers, and power to the therapists looking for an easy and effective way to communicate with families about fine motor skills and home programs. All this power will lead to empowerment, with adults having a comprehensive picture of not only what to do to help kids develop fine motor skills, but how to do it, and why it is important.
But let’s be honest.
Most people don’t have time to research each activity to learn the foundational components that are being addressed.
What is needed is a quick and easy reference that pairs skill-building tasks for children with straightforward and understandable parent education. That combination has come together in Fine Motor ABC, an easy-to-implement resource with 26 targeted activities to develop foundational and functional fine motor skills.
Fine Motor ABC engages children with the WHAT and adults with the WHY while including an alphabet focus to facilitate literacy development, sign language to support kinesthetic learning, and rhyming words to reinforce cognitive development.
What professionals are saying about Fine Motor ABC:
“I recommend Fine Motor ABC for all of my students. It’s a valuable tool for kids with typical development and for those with delayed motor skills.”
– Melissa Whitten, Preschool Teacher“Written by a pediatric Occupational Therapist, this short picture book gets right to the heart of how to support fine motor skills children need for everyday activities such as playing, feeding, dressing, cutting, writing and more.”
– Christie Kiley, MamaOT (mamaot.com)“Fine Motor ABC is a great book for Occupational Therapists, teachers, and parents or anyone who works with kids. Each letter of the alphabet addresses a fine motor skill with a quick and easy description of the task. There are big, bright images and corresponding hand signs for kids to copy. The engaging description of the activities really had my kids interested in reading through the book.”
– Colleen Beck, The OT Tool Box (theottoolbox.com)
Click here to purchase Fine Motor ABC in either print or ebook format.
The book answers questions such as:
Why are animal walks important and why bother doing them before a fine motor activity?
Why does body positioning matter. Aren’t fine motor tasks just done with the hands?
Why is the midline so important and what does it have to do with hand dominance?
Parents, teachers, and therapists will benefit from this interactive and informative book that highlights the WHY behind the activities. More importantly, children will benefit because they will be guided by adults who see more than a fun craft or cute project. The adults will see, and understand, the true benefit behind each task.
Why ask why?
Because it’s important!
Click here to purchase your print or ebook version of Fine Motor ABC today!
Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
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