Supporting fine motor skill development

Fine motor skills are all of the small movements our hands and fingers make completing fine motor activities. Doing up buttons, squeezing toothpaste onto a tooth brush, and cutting with scissors are examples of fine motor activities. Handwriting is a fine motor skill children need to be successful with. In fact, any activity that you do with your hands and fingers relies on your these skills.  Our fine motor skills programme is designed to support children who may have skill delays.

A solution – GriffinOT’s Online Fine Motor Skills Programme

Some children have poorly developed or delayed fine motor skills.  These are the children that our programme is designed for.  Typically, these children are less successful when doing fine motor activities. Often, they avoid activities such as drawing, cutting, craft, and using a knife and fork as they are harder for them to do. Their pencil grasp and handwriting can also be affected. They are children who ask for extra help with self-care activities, such as dressing, buttons, and shoelaces. In addition, they might be less accurate, slower and clumsier with fine motor activities compared to other children their age.

Our online Fine Motor Skills Programme (FMSP) is a set of over 160 activities to help children from 18 months – 10 years of age improve their fine motor skills.  It is also suitable for older children who have motor skill delays.  We have created training for teaching staff and parents, specifically to teach them how to support children who have immature or delayed skills. It has been developed by children’s occupational therapist Kim Griffin. Kim has over 15 years of experience working in schools and with families.  She is passionate about ensuring all children have easy access to affordable advice from occupational therapists.

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Activities
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Education videos

Who will the Fine Motor Skills Programme help?

  • Schools wanting a structured programme to help to support children with fine motor skill delays, including poor pencil grasp and scissor skills

  • Teachers wanting to learn more about fine motor development, including pencil grasp

  • Teaching assistants who are helping children with delayed fine motor skills

  • Parents who want to know how they can help their child with their fine motor skills, including pencil grasp, using scissors and doing up buttons

  • Early educators supporting children with fine motor skill delays who want more ideas on how to help

  • Children from 18 months – 12 years of age with delays in their fine motor skills

GriffinOT Fine Motor Skills Programme – Options and Pricing

There are a number of ways you can access the programme, depending on your needs.  This includes options for schools and individuals.  

If you’re looking for our sensory processing disorder training you can view it here.  There is an option for schools to purchase both the sensory training and fine motor skills programme as a bundle for £500, when purchased as a bundle it includes 12 months’ access for 10 staff members.

Introduction to Fine Motor Skills

£2400

Whole Programme - Schools

£220 or 350

Activities for Home

£2400

What are people saying about the GriffinOT Sensory Processing Disorder training?

“I found the information pitched at a great level for use in school. Just the right amount of theory and practical tips.”

Teaching Assistant, UK

“I was able to do this course in bite sized pieces which made it work better for me. The information was very clear and easy to follow, and having a break between sections gave me opportunity to think of the children in the setting that could benefit from the advice given.”

Teacher, UK

Why is the GriffinOT Fine Motor Skills Programme different?

Our online, video-based programme is unique. It has been thoughtfully designed to provide adults with easy to understand knowledge about how fine motor skills (FMS) develop. There are both educational and instructional videos for each activity.  We ‘show’ adults how to do each activity correctly and how to spot errors children may make.

Another unique aspect of our programme is that we have structured it in a modular way to be easily tailored to the ability of individual children. We have developed a process to help adults identify at which of the six different sections a child should start. Each activity has an expected target, which supports adults to identify when to move a child onto a new activity because they have been successful with the easier activities. It also helps to show the progress a child is making with FMS development.

What’s special about our online programme?

The first big difference with our programme is that there an instructional video for every activity in the programme.  These videos show you how to do the activities correctly.  The videos also show you the things you need to avoid when the child is doing the activities.  We feel this information is essential to ensure activities are being done correctly and children have the most benefit from doing fine motor activities.  Each FMS comes with tips on how to make it easier and harder so that you can adapt it for the individual child.  In addition, there are educational videos which describe the skills being developed in each section of the programme.

“Includes an instructional video for every activity in the programme.”

The second difference with our programme is that you can tailor it to the ability of each individual child.  The activities are divided into six different sections.  Each activity has an expected target.  This allows you to move the child onto a new activity once they are successful with the easier activities.  The result is that the child is not left doing the same set of activities until their programme is (or in many cases is not) reviewed.  It allows the adult to change the child’s programme as their skills improve.  It also means that if a child needs to spend longer on a particular activity to be successful with it, they can.

“You can tailor each activity to the ability of each individual child.”

Are there any children who may not be able to access the programme?

The programme is not specifically designed for children who have an identified neurological condition, such as cerebral palsy, causing their FMS difficulties. However, it could be used with these children, providing adults understand that they may not be able to complete all activities and their progress may be slower. These children also benefit from extra support from an occupational therapist, even if they are accessing the programme.

The programme is not recommended for children who have degenerative conditions, such as those with muscular dystrophy.

What are the levels of the programme?

flowchart of the fine motor skills programme with each of the six stages

Can I see a sample of the fine motor skill programme?

Yes! If you would like to see how the FMS programme works, you can sign up for a by clicking the button below.  This will give you a feel for the structure of the programme.  It will also show you how our programmes could be the right solution to help you support your children.

Frequently Asked Questions

What about Supporting Pencil Grasp?

We also have a specific programme to help with pencil grasp.  You can learn more here.

What is the benefit of the school package?

The school package includes access to all four levels of the programme for five staff for 12 months.  This is a more cost effective way for schools to purchase the programme, rather than purchasing individual levels for short periods of time.

Why Study with GriffinOT?

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