Correct Hand Positioning for Writing and Cutting.

Children are most successful writing and cutting when they are taught proper positioning initially, to prevent the need for corrective relearning later. Incorrect hand positions lead to fatigue, inefficient use of tools and writing implements, and difficulty seeing work.

Manipulative Materials

Early childhood product catalogs are full of different kinds of manipulative materialssmall items that children play with or use in different ways to practice and develop their fine motor skills. Many of these are inspired or derived in one way or another from Montessori’s practical life and sensory materials, designed to promote fine motor skills and the left-right/top-bottom visual progression of reading and writing (in Western languages). Preschool classrooms or home-care settings typically include a manipulatives area or center and teacher-directed or facilitated activities, games, and projects designed to support fine motor development.

Manipulative materials can serve multiple purposes. One example of a multiuse manipulative is a set of small plastic counting bearschildren use their fine motor skills to pick them up, arrange them in rows, or place them in groups, but they are also sorting and classifying them by color, size, or some other attribute, which helps to develop early math skills. Similarly a child doing a knobbed puzzle is developing a pincer grasp but also depth perception and spatial awareness by comparing the shapes of the puzzle piece to the possible places where they could fit.

Frequently used manipulative materials include:

Hand and finger puppets
Puzzles
Small plastic animals or objects such as bears, boats
Blocks
Sets of interlocking shapes that can be put together in different ways, such as Legos, Bristle Blocks, or plastic chain links
Small vehicles and tracks
Pegboards
Beads and string
Lacing boards or shapes
Gears
Dressing frames
Objects for stacking or nesting
Crayons, markers,
Parquetry (pattern) blocks
Dominoes
Squishy or knobbed rubber balls

Many of these materials are available in different sizes to accommodate a range of developmental levels, from young toddlers to children in the primary grades.