Fine motor development
A toddler takes off stackers from a peg-based stacking toy with the opportunity to put stackers back on the toy’s peg.
Be Prepared: Secure a stacking toy with a peg, such as Fat Brain SpinAgain Stacking Toy or Double Rainbow Stacker from Kaplan Toys. Please note that most stacking-ring toys require rings to be placed on the peg according to size of hole and may be too challenging for some toddlers. (See Block 10 Cognitive, Option 3.) Place the fully assembled toy on a low table.
[Invite a toddler to play with a stacking toy. Kneel or sit on a low chair. Some toddlers may wish to stand. Point to a stacker and explain that we call these stackers.]
[Remove the top stacker with your fingers when the toddler is watching. Put the removed stacker in the bowl. Describe your actions. Emphasize that you took a stacker off the peg and put the stacker in the bowl. Invite the toddler to take the next stacker off the peg and put the stacker in the bowl. Describe the toddler’s actions, emphasizing off and in actions.
Draw attention to the growing number of stackers in the bowl. Example: “There are lots of stackers in the bowl now. You took many stackers off the peg and put them in the bowl.” Encourage the toddler to take remaining stackers off the peg.
After all stackers are off the peg, ask the toddler if he/she would like to put some stackers back on the peg. If not, put all stackers on the peg, one by one, and invite the toddler to take them off the peg again, one by one.
If the toddler would like to put stackers back on the peg, pick up a stacker, point to the hole in the middle of the stacker, and demonstrate putting the stacker on the peg with two hands. Draw attention to how the peg goes into the hole on the stacker.
Encourage the toddler to put a stacker on the peg. Offer verbal guidance, if necessary. Describe the toddler’s actions. As the toddler places stackers on the peg, draw attention to how there are more and more stackers on the peg and the bowl is getting empty. Encourage the toddler to put on the peg any stackers that remain in the bowl.]
[Enthusiastically recognize the toddler’s effort, whether it is taking some or all of the stackers off the peg or putting some or all of the stackers on the peg. Point out how the toddler’s hands and eyes did a lot of work, moving and looking at the stackers.]
This activity promotes small-muscle strength and eye-hand coordination. The activity can also support a toddler’s awareness of quantity as the number of stackers in a bowl (or on the peg) increases or decreases. Avoid counting the stackers; counting is not appropriate to teach to toddlers. Instead, offer comments such as “There are many balls in the bowl now.” It is not necessary or important for a toddler to pay attention to the color or size of stackers for this activity.
For some toddlers, removing some or all of the stackers from the peg is a big accomplishment. Enthusiastically recognize the effort. Example: “Rio, you took all the stackers off the peg! Now the stackers are in the bowl.”
Puzzled looks on toddlers’ faces in response to your verbal requests may indicate a lack of vocabulary knowledge, including understanding of the prepositions off, on, and in. Clearly enunciating and accentuating these words as you demonstrate actions and offer gestures can help strengthen toddlers’ understanding of these frequently used words.
Extra support
Enrichment
Fine motor development
A toddler practices putting pegs in a pegboard.
On a low table, place a pegboard with several pegs in it and a bowl of pegs. A non-skid mat or hand towel placed under the pegboard can reduce slipping and soften the sound of pegs dropping onto the surface.
Invite a toddler to play with the pegs and pegboard. The toddler may prefer to stand. Sit or kneel near the toddler. Point to and describe the pegboard and pegs. Emphasize the holes in the board and the tip on the peg that goes in a hole.
While the toddler is watching, take a peg from the bowl of pegs and demonstrate putting it in a hole, drawing attention again to the peg’s tip and the hole. Emphasize how your fingers are holding and moving the peg. Then take a peg out of a hole and put it in another hole in a different part of the pegboard. Again, emphasize how your fingers are holding and moving the peg. Tell the toddler that he/she can put pegs in the board wherever he/she wishes.
Support the toddler’s efforts by remaining close to him/her and offering assistance as appropriate. Example: Point again to the tip of the peg and demonstrate how a tip goes in a hole. Quietly describe the toddler’s actions, emphasizing the words in, out, tip, and hole.
Play with pegs and pegboards promotes eye-hand coordination and skills in manipulating a relatively small item (a peg). It is a more challenging form of play than Option 1 because a peg requires more refined muscle control and eye-hand coordination than a stacker and peg.
Toddlers tend to approach pegboards in interesting and varied ways. Toddlers new to the materials may put in a relatively small number of pegs. For some toddlers, putting in five pegs requires considerable persistence. Some toddlers may put in a few pegs and leave the task feeling satisfied. Some toddlers may be most interested in removing pegs you put in.
Toddlers new to pegs and pegboards may struggle initially with the side of the peg to put in the hole. You can help the toddler with this struggle by demonstrating how to turn a peg so the tip faces the hole. Toddlers also may experiment with either hand or try both hands to put a peg in a hole. Refrain from commenting unless you anticipate the toddler may become frustrated or not learn through trial and error that typically one hand is sufficient. Realizing that fingers are essential to the task may take some time, although it may help for you to offer gentle reminders, such as “Remember to use your fingers” as you point to your or the toddler’s fingers.
Once toddlers figure out the fine motor skills for managing a peg, they may pursue a pegboard pattern of interest, such as filling one line of holes with pegs. Or they may prefer a particular color or set of colors of pegs. Continue to describe what you see without offering any direction.
Extra support
Enrichment
Materials Needed: materials used in Options 1 and 2, toy dishes, muffin pans, balls or small toys
Offer the materials used in Options 1 and 2 with staff guidance. Supplement with other fine motor materials, such as small toys in muffins tins and toy dishes.
Materials Needed: pegboards, pegs of assorted colors in a bowl
The pegs and pegboard are an extension of pattern work offered in ELM’s Mathematics activities for preschool-age children. Preschool-age children generally enjoy making patterns and will welcome opportunities to create a simple peg pattern of their design, such as red-blue-red-blue.
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