Mastering writing her name – a huge achievement and a culmination of the development of both gross and fine motor skills.

Mark making – the role of gross and fine motor skills!

This is our first ‘Parents as Partners in Learning’ blog post. The aim of these posts is to highlight ways we can work together to support children’s learning and development.

This post takes a closer look at gross and fine motor skills and the role they play in mark making (early scribbling): the first step to drawing and writing.

Gross motor skills involve large movements such as crawling, walking, climbing and jumping. At nursery we provide lots of experiences for gross motor development – exploring outside, biking, large scale art, dance, football and tennis (and that’s just this week!). These activities support children to strengthen their trunk, neck and shoulder muscles which develop the posture, control and coordination needed for mark making.

When a child is drawing a picture they apply their fine motor skills to hold and move their pencil or crayon with precision. At nursery lots of activities support the development of children’s fine motor skills: little hands and fingers are strengthened by peeling and cutting fruits at snack time or squeezing water from a sponge at the water tray; also tracing, threading beads and using scissors support hand-eye coordination and dexterity.

We are very aware of all the active and energetic activities that children do at home.  All of these contribute to your child’s preparation for writing.  Upper body strength is crucial to the development of pencil grip and pencil control.  In encouraging them to be active, you are helping them develop the skills they will need for handwriting and drawing.