Fine Motor Difficulties – a day in the life of an SEN mum
What are Fine Motor Skills? This is a term used to describe the small, detailed actions and movements the hands need to do in order to make certain things happen. For example, hold a pen, fasten up a zip, hold a fork or spoon. My son who has Down Syndrome, really struggles with these fine motor activities. He needs a lot of help to get dressed, he can’t do his own buttons or zips. He can’t hold a pencil and he can’t use scissors. Although this might not sound particularly problematic, it really does have a huge impact on his life and on mine too.
Here are some example of how fine motor skill difficulties affect our lives.
- My son wants some independence but still needs me to help feed him. Whilst this is happening, I can’t do anything else.
- My son still just does scribbling (if I can manage to get him to hold a pencil). It impacts on his confidence, and he avoids having to do mark making exercises.
- Can not push switches and buttons as he also has hypermobility (hypermobility means that some or all of his joints have an unusually large range of movement), and he doesn’t have the strength because he also has hypotonia (Hypotonia is a medical term used to describe decreased muscle tone). This leads to frustration.
- Arts and crafts are out for us. My son can’t use scissors and gets frustrated with his ability to manipulate small objects and he just gives up. This directly impacts on his confidence and results in avoidance.
How can Homesensory help?
Homesensory provide equipment and experiences based in play to help my son develop his fine motor skills. The team have provided high interest activities for my son and have spent time building a relationship with him. Because of this, my son doesn’t even realise that a form of ‘support’ is being provided. By using sensory switches, the team have helped my son develop his confidence, encouraging him to try new things and it always works so there is no room for the frustration I usually see. Homesensory have also created easily replicable tasks for us to try at home so we can build on the work they do. For example,
- Threading
- Rice boxes with small objects to find
- Posting games
- Shape sorting
- Messy play opportunities
Contact us to register your interest.
- 1 The Hollies, Hornsea, HU18 1TW