Finger painting addresses fine motor skill development. Your child will use their small or fine motor skills to push the paint around the paper, color blend, and smooth the surface while developing abilities such as: bilateral skills, eye-hand coordination, and muscle strength. Finger painting also addresses challenges with sensory processing and works on finger isolation (one finger to perform a specific task.) Essentially, finger isolation is needed for other functional activities such as: dexterity in pencils, paintbrushes, tying shoes, and typing on a keyboard.

Painting with a brush addresses fine motor skills and requires your child to utilize the brush with a pincers grip. This activity will address hand-eye coordination, dexterity, and will also encourage your child to use their hand, wrist and arm to create an image on paper while using their muscles. Painting with a brush provides the opportunity for your child to strengthen their grasp and discover manual control.

Supplies needed: White paper, paint, and paintbrush.

Instructions:
Give your child a piece of white paper, paint, and paint brushes.
• Allow your child to get familiar with the paint using their fingers.
• Encourage your child to draw an image of their choice (heart, star, flower, etc.) on the white piece of paper using their fingers.
• When finished, wash paint off fingers.
• Transition from using fingers to using a brush.
• Model how to properly hold a paintbrush using a pincers grip.
• Encourage your child to draw an image of their choice (heart, star, flower, etc.) on a fresh piece of white paper using the paint brush.