Pasta Threading
Threading is a great activity for fine motor development which are required to carry out day to day activities such as doing up buttons, doing shoelaces, drawing, and eventually writing. It also helps with bilateral coordination which is also needed to carry out most of these tasks independently.
It took our daughter quite a while to get the hang of threading, and it wasn’t until we tried this activity that she was able to do it. Once she was able to do it with pipe cleaners, she was able to do it with softer materials as well.
Materials:
Pipe cleaner
Dry pasta with a hole to thread through. The smaller the pasta the more dexterity required.
Container for the pasta
How to introduce:
Bend one end of the pipe cleaner and demonstrate how to thread through a piece of pasta.
Start with the larger pastas with larger holes before moving on to the smaller ones. Ensure that your child is supervised at all times as dried pasta can break and chip easily.
Our daughter was 2 years and 1 months old in this video
Great for:
Hand-eye coordination is required in everyday tasks such as grasping objects, handwriting, playing games, eating and cooking. As with other body skills, hand-eye coordination can be practised and improved upon. This development begins in infancy.
Fine Motor Skills involve the small muscles working with the brain in order to control small movements. Developing fine motor skills helps children do things like eating, writing and getting dressed.
Bilateral coordination is when two sides of the body are being used at the same time to carry out an activity. Many daily self-care and play activities require bilateral coordination skills including eating, getting dressed, tying shoelaces, playing sports, running, walking and skipping.
Focus and concentration help children to learn. Most skills are learned by practising them over and over, so being able to block out distractions and focus on particular tasks will help the rate in which they learn.
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