From the first moment, the baby uses his hands to feel the world around him. What do you like the most? Grab mom.
Are they so cute? A baby’s chubby hands are edible, in fact they love it and won’t stop sucking on them. The first months still do not serve for much more, but little by little, the little one will advance in control of his whole body, and also of the hands, one of the parts that will grant him greater autonomy.
The world is in your hands and to help you discover it, let him play and explore until he gets dirty. Then there will be time to clean up.
To eat: before learning to use the spoon, the child needs to take food with his fingers. Not only is it a great stimulus in the development of fine motor skills, but it also helps you establish a good relationship with food. Try sitting the little one in his pet pot and not worrying about what falls on the floor or on the table. Give him small foods that he can play with with his hands: a few grains of corn, several grapes or pieces of banana and apple. You will see how he enjoys!
To build: around the year, it will start to pile things up, put one inside the other, tear paper, etc. In order for the child to improve this manual ability, he must first have had to develop gross motor skills, that is, everything that has to do with the global movement of his body: crawling, turning on himself, crawling? That gives him enough skill to start using his hands meaningfully. Hence the importance of the little one evolving without skipping the stages.
To grasp: Between eight and ten months, the baby will be able to grasp small objects with the thumb and index finger. This is what is called a clamp movement. It may be a good occasion to offer you new games. Put various objects around him, some larger and some smaller (like a stroller, a rubber?), And ask him to put them in a boat. In this way, he plays and has a good time, at the same time that he learns to move his little fingers separately.
To paint: it is beneficial to start practicing painting, or clay, with your fingers and then scribble, before you start writing. Thus, the little one also works, albeit unconsciously, the expansion of the arm and elbow, which will be necessary when he has to start tracing his first letters. It’s a fun and creative way to improve your manual dexterity and, by the way, experiment. Feeling the consistency and temperature of the paint in your hands and drawing with it will make your imagination fly!