Ideas and Games to Strengthen Hand Muscles and Promote Dexterity

1.Use a proper pencil grip. Explain the correct grip. Only 3 fingers are used to grip your pencil. The pencil sits on the side of your middle finger. Thumb and index finger grip the pencil.

2. Encourage proper posture when sitting at a desk. Pull your chair in. Two feet on the floor. One hand steadies the page while the other hand writes or draws. Keep the back fairly upright. No lying on the desk ideally. We have more control if we sit properly. We also concentrate better if we have good posture.

3. Jigsaws – great for strengthening hand muscles. Encourage the child to assemble and disassemble the jigsaw.

4. Duplo or Lego: Connect and disconnect pieces of Lego or Duplo.

5. Plasticine: Manipulate, roll and soften a strip of plasticine. Roll it into a ball. Flatten it and make a pencil. Make figures with it. Squeeze it back into a ball for the next use.

6. K’nex (an alternative to Lego) – Clip together and disconnect K’nex pieces.

7. Squeeze a rubber ball with both the right and the left hand alternatively. Press as hard as you can. Make the ball as small as possible. Repeat 3 times with each hand. Squeeze the water out of facecloths or sponges. Repeat.

8. Open and close buttons.

9. Open and close lunch boxes or jars or bottles.

10. Learn to tie shoe laces.

11. Crayon work – Press down hard for a deeper colour

12. Scissor Work: Cut out pictures from old magazines or papers trying to stay on the lines. Using a marker, draw straight, curved or jagged lines on paper and encourage the child to cut along the lines as carefully as they can.

13. Gymnastics – Basic safe movements to strengthen the hands and legs.

14. Dribbling a ball around cones, bouncing balls on the foot or kicking a ball to improve co- ordination and leg strength.

15. Sport in general aids strength and co-ordination. a) Bouncing balls b) Catching balls c) Racquet Games d) Swimming