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When your child begins to hold and use objects with their fingers, they’re starting to develop dexterity. Dexterity is when your child is able to grasp and manipulate objects using small, precise movements.
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As your child gets older and does more precise fine motor activities, they’ll develop and use dexterity. Zipping their coat, learning to tie shoes, printing, using scissors, and learning to type are all activities that require dexterity.
Translation: The ability to move items from the fingers to the palm or from the palm to the fingers. Your child uses this skill when they put coins into a machine or pick up a treat and tuck it into their hand.
Shift: The ability to move objects between fingers. Your child uses this skill when separating pieces of paper or moving a pencil into a more comfortable position.
Rotation: The ability to turn an object using your fingertips and thumb. You use this skill when opening a jar, spinning a top, or flipping a pencil to use the eraser.
After your child has learned basic fine motor skills, like grasp patterns, crossing midline, bilateral coordination, and hand dominance, dexterity will continue to develop. This is usually after 6 years of age.
In addition to using basic fine motor skills, dexterity also involves in-hand manipulation. This is when your child controls and moves objects with 1 hand. In-hand manipulation includes translation, shift, and rotation.
Your child needs strong basic fine motor skills to build dexterity. If they’re struggling with grasp patterns or if they don’t have a dominant or preferred hand, this can impact their dexterity skills.
If your child has strong basic fine motor skills but struggles with in-hand manipulation, you may notice that they have trouble with:
To encourage rotation, your child can:
To encourage shift, your child can:
To encourage translation, your child can:
For more information or help with fine motor struggles, contact:
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