5 yr old with poor fine motor skills - does my DD have a problem?

[hillyhilly]

At parents evening yesterday, DDs teacher mentioned that she is quite cack-handed (can't think of a better way to put it!).
Her examples were that she holds her pen quite awkwardly which is compromising her handwriting (all 4 fingers are wrapped around the pen shaft), she's very poor with scissors, and that she's finding it hard to remember the steps or stay coordinated in a line dance they are learning - she wondered if it was something we'd noticed?
Now we've started to think about it - to the above list we would add; that she is appalling messy at mealtimes, struggles to use cutlery (fork and spoon, not even trying a knife!), was terrible at the throwing, jumping type events at sports day, and still wears a pull up at night.
She is very bright and articulate, very enthusiastic, is G&T at reading, above average in maths and enjoys ballet, gymnastics and swimming - I say all this not to boast just to point out that she doesn't spend all her time buried in a book and not building her strength and co-ordination.

Is there anything we should do or be aware of? Does anyone else have any experience of this?

TIA

Both my children struggle with fine motor skills - for different reasons!

DS has underdeveloped fine motor skills because he has never wanted to sit down and draw. He's now struggling with writing in Yr2 although like your DD is fantastic at reading

DD has poor fine motor skills due to co-ordination problems. She has low muscle tone and hypermobility so falls over a lot and struggles with her balance. She also holds the pen with all 4 fingers (you may want to look at whether your DD is hypermobile in her fingers?).

I'm not sure what would be causing your DD's dificulties but just to illustrate - could be physical or possibly that she just puts her effort into other things!

I was told my DS needed to fine tune his fine motor skills at parents evening the other day and actually like 1percent my DS was never remotely interested in lego/drawing etc. I've found now though that when he gets hom from school he's much keener on these things so I'm trying to encourage it !

Is there anyone at school who can help identify what needs to be worked on and how ? - it sounds like she is doing fine in all other aspects.

My ds has always had problems with fine motor skills and general co-ordination. In his case this is due to his autism and possible dyspraxia, although obviously this won't necessarily be the case for your dd.

There is a lot that can be done to help. I would make another appointment to see the teacher and ask about help for dd at school. At 5yrs old my ds was doing 5mins a day of manipulating playdough into shapes and rolling it. They also encouraged him to try activities like threading beads and laces.

He also found it easier to grip either triangular pencils or ordinary pencils with a triangular grip.