What are fine psychomotor skills?

Fine motor skills are the coordination of body movements that require dexterity, precision and greater command and control of hands and arms. It is one of the most important skills that children acquire.

At El Valle Nursery School, Alicante we work on fine motor skills as they play a fundamental role in developing intelligence. Managing these skills in our youngest students will allow them to: handle objects, improve their hand to eye coordination, appreciate their surroundings more easily and develop their creativity.

Fine motor skills are such small, natural movements that most people do not think about them. However, they become complex movements that involve coordinated exertions of the brain and muscles.

Children need to develop these skills to perform basic tasks such as holding a wax crayon and scribbling, stacking blocks or stringing objects together. Fine motor skills also help youngsters to perform everyday tasks such as holding a glass of water or putting food in their mouths.

When fine motor skills begin to develop

Motor skills development starts during the first year of life. The first sign that it has started is in the first days of life, the palmer grasp reflex is triggered: when you touch the palm of a baby’s hand, the baby instinctively closes their fingers. This reflex will disappear to make way for other skills: playing with hands, grabbing objects, hitting them and putting them in their mouth…

As baby approaches their first year, they will be able to push objects using their index finger. From that moment on, fine motor skills begin to be used to strengthen dexterity, giving them the ability to grasp small and large objects without any difficulty, turn pages in stories, and use stringing toys, among other skills.

The development of these activities is very motivating for our children and to achieve good progress we must not forget to encourage their achievements. In El Valle Nursery School, Alicante we have an educational project based on Early Stimulation, where we work on fine motor skills so that learning is given the importance it deserves during the first stage of childhood.