Holiday gifts to improve hand strength in kids

Strengthening the hands can help kids have increased independence during daily tasks like opening toothpaste, zipping zippers, and tying shoes. The following gifts can also help kids with school tasks like coloring, pencil use, and fine motor finesse with STEM activities.

Here are some ideas:

• Play-Doh, slime, clay

• Large car washing sponges to wash their bike, parents car, the windows

• Tweezers, clothes pins, chopstick activities and games.

• Any activity that has them putting pressure through their hands- Wall push-ups, wheelbarrow walking, walking like a bear or walking like a crab through an obstacle course.

• Cooking in the kitchen and using their hands to make and mix cookie dough, protein power bites, or homemade granola mixture. Buy presents like mixing bowls, holiday spatulas, aprons to spend time together doing these activities.

With fine motor strengthening, remember that it is easier to build hand strength when supported by a strong base/trunk/core, and posture muscles/abdominal muscles, as the foundation for higher level skills. Trunk strength is essential for many things, not just fine motor skills. When you have a strong core, your body is more stabilized while you do things like a visual tracking (reading), sitting at a desk to finish a project, sitting at the table to eat a meal, and even driving a car. This core trunk strength originates as an infant during exploration on the floor against gravity in multiple positions and especially during tummy time. Each skill truly is a building block to a higher level of independence.