Fine motor skills are a baby's actions using the various small muscles throughout the body to make very specific, detailed movements. “Fine motor” just means “small movements.” These skills include grasping, holding, and manipulating small objects. Gross motor skills are developed using the larger muscles in the body, which for an infant include moving arms, kicking legs, and sitting upright. Likewise, “gross motor” means “large movement.” Babies usually begin developing these skills shortly after they come into this world. While the gross motor skills are more apparent in the earlier months of a baby’s life, the baby is refining their skills by practicing even when their hard work isn’t evident. Fine motor skills are important as they allow people to perform necessary daily tasks, like taking care of hygiene, eating, getting dressed, completing assignments and work/school, playing, and more. Developing fine motor skills is a process that can last even into adulthood and can be influenced by various factors in that child’s life.

What Factors Influence Fine Motor Skills?

The list of factors that affect a baby's development of fine motor skills can be extensive and quite complicated. Babies are soaking up so many new things neurologically and physically during the first year of their lives. Here are a few things that naturally affect fine motor skills:

• Cognitive Development: All of the tangible skills a baby learns begin with brain development.
• Muscle Tone: Genetics can affect this, but the stronger the muscles are, the quicker the ability to obtain fine motor skills. Muscle development can vary in babies but also follows a typical pattern of milestones.
• Birth Order: Typically, firstborn children have much more focused attention on development than children born with siblings. Studies have shown that fine motor skills are developed earlier in firstborn children. However, gross motor skills development has no significant difference in children with siblings.
• Environment: Opportunities that a baby has to practice developing skills. Babies who are given the time and space to explore their surroundings and access age-specific toys or objects can practice mastering their new skills more often.

What Are Baby’s First Fine Motor Skills?

Babies develop at different rates, and all kinds of movements prepare a baby for the skills they will need throughout their lives. Those fine motor skills begin to become evident at 3 to 7 months old.

• Reach for specific objects
• Hold small objects in their hands
• Using both hands to reach for objects
• Exchange objects from hand to hand

These may be seemingly insignificant milestones, but they are essential movements that will continue to be refined and implemented for the rest of a person’s life.

What Are Additional Fine Motor Skills Developed in Childhood?

While birth is the starting point for setting these skills in motion, the process of developing these skills lasts well into a child’s life. Here are other fine motor skills that will be displayed:

• 6-9 Months: Bringing food (and other objects) to their mouth
• 9-12 Months: Attempting to use a spoon when eating
• 2 Years: Scribbling with crayons and turning pages in a book
• 3 Years: Playing with simple puzzles
• 4 Years: Using scissors to cut simple shapes
• 5 Years: Buttoning and unbuttoning clothing
• 6 Years: Writing clearly and coloring neatly

This is just a small sample of what babies and children learn within their first months and years of life.

How Can This Development Be Encouraged?

The more interactions a baby can have with the world around them, the more opportunities they have to expand their fine motor skills and refine them. They even practice many of the skills they learn during sleep. However, there are some things that parents and caregivers can do in order to encourage the development of fine motor skills:

• Activities and Intentional Play Time
• Patty cake with parents
• Sit-ups with parents
• Simple puzzles
• Threading string through cereal
• Unstructured Play Time
• Outside playtime
• Tummy time
• Playtime on a baby’s back
• Toys that Stimulate Creativity
• Magnetic building tiles
• Playdough
• Age-appropriate sensory boxes

How Can You Make Sure Your Baby Is On Track?

So many changes happen so quickly in the development of fine motor skills; one day, they are swinging their arms and legs, and the next day, they begin grabbing for objects. Remember, there is a broad range of “normal” development in babies. The milestones mentioned are averages. Some babies develop earlier, and some develop later. If you are worried about your baby’s fine motor skills, talk to their pediatrician to see if there is any cause for concern.

You can also make playtime more meaningful with newborn development activities for your baby with Curious Baby Activity Cards. They can directly influence the development of fine motor skills in babies with the exercises they will complete and the time they spend with mom and dad. Our cards can help you better understand what goals are expected at each development stage and provide tangible ways to help your child continue to advance.