Fine motor development
Toddlers string beads onto tubing.
Be Prepared: Be sure all of the beads fit onto the plastic tubing before you begin. By 24 months of age, many toddlers will find stringing beads to be a challenging and satisfying task. Arrange beads in random order on the tray. This activity may be offered as a one-to-one activity.
[Sit on the floor with the stringing bead set and invite 2–3 toddlers to join you. Place the tray of beads between you and toddlers.]
[Demonstrate holding a tube with one hand and placing the bead onto the tube with the opposite hand. Hold a section of the tubing in an upright position where the toddler can easily watch.]
Every bead will fit onto this tube. I hold the tube with one hand. My other hand moves the bead. The tube goes through the hole in the bead. We call this stringing beads onto a tube.
Here is a tube for each of you. We have lots of beads.
[Encourage each toddler to fit one bead on his/her tube at a time. Aligning the bead hole and the tube may take a couple of tries. Hold the tubing for a toddler until he/she has mastered putting on a bead. Ask a toddler when he/she would like to hold the tube by himself/herself.
Describe each toddler’s actions. Examples: “You are looking with your eyes and using one hand to fit the bead onto the tubing.” “Your hands are working together.” “One slipped off. It is okay. You can put it on again.”
Acknowledge persistence and encourage each toddler to place another bead onto the tube.
You may wish to string beads onto your tubing as you sit next to participating toddlers. Do not add more beads than each toddler adds. It may be discouraging for a toddler who is working hard to string the beads to see you have more.
Acknowledge a toddler’s verbal or nonverbal wish to end the activity. Examples: “You said ‘all done.’ Let’s put the beads on the tray. I will help you.” “I see you want to be ‘all done.’ I will help you put the beads on the tray.”]
[Describe each toddler’s efforts with the beads. Emphasize the steps each toddler used to string the beads and use of fingers/hands to hold the tube and string the beads.]
Observe and support each toddler’s approach to the beads and tubing. Toddlers may experiment by changing the angle of the tube, and may switch the tubing from one hand to another hand. It is not necessary to instruct the child to use one hand or the other.
Give individualized attention to each toddler, as suggested in the activity description, and avoid comparing their efforts or counting the number of beads they string.
Some toddlers will enjoy lifting the tube and watching all of the beads slide onto the floor. Support this exploration by cheerfully exclaiming, for example, “All the beads came off your tube!”
Some toddlers will begin to see that the more beads he/she adds to the tube the longer the bead string becomes. Some toddlers will recognize colors and will put all of one color beads onto the tubing.
Stringing large beads onto a tube involves coordination of both hands, called bilateral coordination. Rooted in this activity is the toddler’s motor planning, which involves the ability to think about an action and then do it.
Extra support
Enrichment
Fine motor development
Toddlers create chains by putting together links.
Be Prepared: Provide 10–15 links per toddler that can be put together into a chain. Use larger links if you anticipate smaller ones may be too challenging for existing fine motor skills. If you use two (or more) different sizes of links, organize them by size into containers, with one container per toddler. If all links for the activity are the same size, place them in the center of the activity, within easy reach of participants.
Sit on the floor near the links and invite 2–3 toddlers to join you in making a chain by putting together links. Demonstrate and describe how to hold a link with one hand and move the second link with the other hand so it connects. Point to the opening (space) in a link that allows a link to be connected to another link. Emphasize that we use our fingers on both hands to put together the links. Describe what your fingers do when you put together two links.
Draw attention to how a chain gets longer when links are added. Example: “Kalyn, you put together more links. Your chain is getting longer.” Avoid comparing the lengths of toddlers’ chains.
Make the activity fun by enthusiastically acknowledging toddlers’ skills in creating chains.
Offer your demonstration slowly and ensure all toddlers can see your finger and hand actions. You may wish to offer second and third demonstrations, tailored to each child. Watch each toddler’s initial work with links to determine whether additional assistance is needed. Provide sufficient time for a toddler to explore the links on his/her own. Pay attention to possible frustration and promptly offer help if it appears a toddler is going to give up. See the Extra Support tip below for how to help.
Toddlers who readily put together the links may be interested in the color of links. Although color identification is not a goal of the activity, you can support color interests by commenting on color. Example: “Ria, you put two red links together.” You also may wish to assemble groups of links by color. Some toddlers may enjoy asking for or pointing to what color they want next, or simply selecting the color of interest.
Extra support
Enrichment
Fine motor development
Toddlers put together plastic nuts and bolts.
Be Prepared: This activity is aimed at toddlers who readily put together links (Option 2) and are ready for the additional fine motor challenge of putting together a nut and bolt. Use nuts and bolts of the same size. (You may wish to provide different sizes as a follow-up activity. See Enrichment tip.) Put nuts on one tray and bolts on the other tray. Use a table for the activity. Prepare a third tray of alternative small manipulatives, such as snap beads and stacking cups, for possible use as suggested in an Extra Support tip.
Place the two trays of materials on a low table. Invite 2–3 toddlers to join you at the table to play with nuts and bolts. Sit or kneel at the table so you are at eye level with the children.
Explain that we can put a nut and a bolt together. Point to and say the name of each. Explain that a nut has a hole and a bolt has a part that can go into the hole. Encourage toddlers to feel a nut and a bolt. Then demonstrate putting together a nut and bolt. Describe how you move your fingers to hold and turn the items. Make sure each toddler can see your finger actions. Provide multiple demonstrations, if needed, each one directed to a specific toddler.
After toddlers’ exploratory manipulation of the items and your demonstration, encourage toddlers to put together a nut and a bolt. Observe each toddler’s approach to determine whether your assistance is needed. If support seems appropriate, offer verbal help first, such as “turn it again.” A higher level of support is to hold a bolt steady while the toddler turns the nut onto the bolt. This is more challenging for a toddler than holding the bolt while you turn the nut.
Give each toddler just enough assistance to complete the task. As a toddler develops the needed skill, your help and support will shift to observing, encouraging, and describing actions.
If you notice toddlers using the nuts and bolts inappropriately, it may indicate the materials present a challenge which is too great and seems unattainable or the materials do not offer enough challenge. The third tray of alternative items is appropriate to offer if you determine the nuts and bolts are too challenging. These materials provide support for using both hands together, technically known as bilateral coordination. It is fine for several toddlers to work with different play materials at the same gathering. If putting together the nuts and bolts appears insufficiently challenging, offer an enhancement, such as matching colors or offering materials of different sizes that first need to be sorted (see Enrichment tip). Anticipate that some toddlers may come and go from the activity.
Extra support
Enrichment
Materials Needed: manipulative toys, pegboards, stacking toys, soapy water in sensory table, sheet of heavy paper, colored tape
Select manipulative toys based on the range of the toddlers’ existing motor skills. Arrange play materials on low shelves or surfaces with spaces between each so toddlers can clearly see what is available. Provide a variety of toys that foster fine motor skills and gross motor skills.
Place two toddler pegboards on a low table for toddlers to use when they wish. In another area arrange several stacking toys to encourage toddlers to coordinate hand movements. Toddlers will enjoy manipulating linking play materials when they are placed in a small amount of soapy water in the sensory table. Tear-free shampoo works well for toddler water play.
A creative way to encourage using two hands is to give each toddler a sheet of heavy paper and lots of two-inch pieces of colored tape, such as painter’s tape. Each toddler can apply the tape in his/her own design. You may wish to tear the tape off the roll and stick two-inch pieces along the edge of a low table.
Materials Needed: large pop beads, muffin pan, nuts and bolts, building materials (Legos®)
Mobile infants will enjoy taking apart large pop beads. Place six connected pop beads next to a muffin pan. Encourage a mobile infant to pull the beads apart and put one bead in each opening of the muffin pan. Emphasize pull off and put in. Reconnect the beads so the infant can repeat. For a younger infant who is alert, set up a baby gym with a few toys the infant can swipe with two hands.
Preschool-age children will likely enjoy Option 3. Older children may use other building materials, such as Lego®-type builders. Play with building materials fosters motor planning as well as eye-hand coordination and dexterity of both hands.
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