How to Encourage Fine Motor Skills in 6 Year Olds

Developing fine motor skills in 6 year olds is easier than you think. Get examples of how to improve these skills through fun activities.

Watching your child struggle with everyday fine motor development is hard for any parent. You worry that she’ll be held back in school and can only draw scribbles compared to her peers. Maybe you engage in epic power struggles because she insists on a task she still can’t perform. You feel stressed when she needs you to do everything for her.

When my twins were in first grade, I volunteered in their classrooms and saw the varying range of abilities in fine motor skills. The more adept a child could use her hands, the more she was able to focus on what she was supposed to learn (instead of spending more of her time trying to write legibly).

If your 6 year old struggles with fine motor skills, don’t worry. She can always improve, from writing legible letters to holding her pencil. No more worrying about being held back or doing everything for her because she says she can’t.

Below is a checklist of activities you can try to hone her fine motor skills in a fun, stress-free way:

Table of Contents

Practice writing and coloring strategically

Daily, 15-minute writing sessions are far more effective than an hours-long exercise once a week. It’s the daily habits that build these skills and reduce power struggles because your child expects them to happen.

Pair the activities with a daily part of your routine, like writing letters during snack time or doing arts and crafts after dinner. Here are a few activities and “lesson plans” to try every day:

Write your child’s name. Print her name and encourage her to practice writing it. Start by having her trace it with her index finger, then write over the lines, and finally, copy it on a separate piece of paper.
Write upper and lower case letters and numbers. Start with large letters and numbers, working your way to smaller sizes.
Color on coloring books and pages. Print or buy coloring sheets with large spaces for her to color within. Practice staying within the lines and coloring all the white spaces. (This is more for fine motor skills and less about limiting her artistic imagination.)
Draw your day (or weekend). One key skill to master is the ability to draw recognizable pictures. My twins’ teachers had them draw and write their “weekend news” every Monday, which helped spur ideas.

Free printables: Help her practice writing with sample worksheets from my digital workbook, Letters and Numbers! Grab them below—at no cost to you. You’ll also get my newsletters, which parents say they LOVE:

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Letters and Numbers: A Handwriting Workbook to Help Your Child Recognize Letters and Numbers

Have your child get dressed alone

So many aspects of dressing ourselves require fine motor skills. Your 6 year old might still struggle with laces, but ideally, he should be able to dress himself completely. This includes buttoning shirts, putting on socks, and pulling zippers.

Teach your child to get dressed by starting the task but allowing him to finish. You might place a button halfway through the hole but have him push the rest in. Or you could pull the zipper halfway so he can zip it completely down.

Give yourselves plenty of time to practice these skills knowing that this is still a learning curve for him. Instead, give yourselves a few extra minutes to get dressed.

Strengthen the “three fingers”

Kids learn to write by gripping the pencil in the middle of their fist and moving their whole arm. But at some point, they start to master resting their arm and hand and only moving the three writing fingers. You can help your 6 year old get used to this motion in a few ways:

Squish play dough using only the thumb, forefinger, and middle finger. Give her a ball of clay and have her squish it using only those three fingers. She could shape, pinch, or tear bits off.
Open clothespins and clips using only the three fingers. Similarly, have her open and close clothespins or clips (like the small ones to keep bags of chips closed and fresh). These work well since they bounce right back to their original position when they’re released.
Hold a ball of tissue with the ring and pinky fingers. Have her write or draw, but with her ring and pinky fingers holding a wadded tissue paper.
Write with short crayons. Help her resist the temptation to grip a crayon in a fist by giving her short crayons. Break crayons in half, which will encourage her to grip these smaller objects with her fingers instead.

Practice cutting along lines

A key fine motor skill is to cut along lines without deviating too much. The lines can be as simple as straight, thick lines, to as complex as circles and stars.

Make a fun activity out of it by printing different shapes and lines on card stock paper. Keep the lines thick so your child can see where to cut along. The thickness of the card stock will make the paper easier to grip and cut. And of course, start with good scissors and avoid old, blunt ones that can be frustrating.

Make it a game by seeing how many shapes you can both cut or how straight along the lines you can keep the scissors steady.

Have your child open packages independently

If you’re like me, you forget how much you do for your child without asking yourself whether he can do it himself. Such was the case with one of my twins asking me all the time to open his snacks. I probably would’ve kept thinking nothing of it… that is, until I realized his twin brother could do it alone.

From gummy snacks to toys to peeling bananas, encourage your child to open her own packages.

If she insists that she can’t open it, help her just enough to get her started. For instance, tear the snack bag a little bit and have her do the rest, or tear the tip of the banana open without peeling it all the way.

Use child-safe utensils

Saturday morning pancake breakfasts are a fantastic excuse at our house that encourages my kids to slice their own food. Pancakes are soft enough that even kid-friendly knives can cut through. Other options include slicing bananas, zucchini, watermelon, hard-boiled eggs, and so much more.

Make sure your child is holding the utensils correctly, using her fingers—and not a gripped fist—to hold the utensils.

Use writing tools to support pencil holding

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Many tools can help your child position her fingers for better pencil control. These leave no doubt about where her fingers should go, helping her develop the habit. Take a look at these favorites:

Even better, simply set out a fork, spoon, and knife at each meal that requires it, and encourage her to try to slice the food herself. You might be surprised at her willingness and ability to do so!

Have supplies easily accessible

I’ll leave you with perhaps the simplest of tips: leave supplies everywhere around the house. These can be any supplies and tools that will help your 6 year develop fine motor skills. Leave crayons, dots markers, scissors, glue sticks, stickers, large beads, yarn, puzzles, and pencils lying around.

Don’t stash these away in hidden, hard-to-reach storage for the sake of tidiness or order. Yes, they should have a place, but you can still make them easily available nonetheless.

For instance, set boxes of markers and colored pencils on a desk in her room. Leave piles of paper and a box of scissors and glue by the dining area. Store craft supplies in the living room within easy reach. This will build the daily habit of practicing her fine motor skills every day, without any prompting from you.

Frequently asked questions

What are fine motor skills?

Fine motor skills are the movements we make using our small muscles in the hands. For 6 year olds, these skills are most apparent in classroom tasks like writing and cutting with scissors with their dominant hand. But they can also impact other day-to-day tasks, like buttoning clothes and slicing food.

Final thoughts

Fine motor skills are important developmental milestones for children to master. Hopefully with these tips and examples, you’ve learned how to improve your 6 year old’s skills, in a fun, stress-free way.

No more worrying, doing everything for her, or engaging in epic power struggles, friend! She can develop the fine motor skills that she needs to thrive.

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