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Child Development & Early Education vocabulary · Physical and Motor Development

Fine motor skills

Meaning in child development & early education, with examples

nounCore term

In child development & early education, fine motor skills means: Skills that use the small muscles of the hands and fingers, often together with the eyes, such as picking up small objects, using a spoon, holding a pencil or cutting with scissors.

In Turkish: ince motor beceriler, küçük kas becerileri

How it is used

Used in observations, development checklists and planning. Practitioners plan activities such as threading, playdough or tweezer games to develop fine motor skills. In speech it is often shortened to fine motor.

Example sentences

  1. Threading beads is great for fine motor skills and concentration.

  2. Her fine motor skills are developing well: she can now pick up a raisin with a pincer grip.

Common collocations

  • develop fine motor skills
  • fine motor control
  • fine motor activities
  • pincer grip
  • gross motor skillsSkills that use the large muscles of the arms, legs and body, such as rolling over, sitting, crawling, walking, running, jumping and climbing.
  • hand-eye coordinationThe ability to use the eyes to guide the movements of the hands, for example when catching a ball, stacking blocks or pouring water.
  • mark makingThe early marks children make with any tool, such as crayons, chalk, paint, sticks in sand or fingers in foam, which come before drawing and writing.
  • milestoneA skill that most children learn within a typical age range, such as smiling, sitting without support, walking or saying first words, used to follow a child's progress.

More terms: Physical and Motor Development

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