USING SCISSORS – FINE MOTOR SKILLS

Let your child experiment with finding the correct grip and technique for holding their scissors, they should use smaller child sized scissors with a blunted end for safety. Let them understand the different parts of the scissors and develop a sense of danger and caution towards the sharp edges.

They can choose naturally whether to hold the scissors in their left or right hand, children who show a preference towards their left hand for writing, drawing, and cutting may benefit from left handed scissors with reversed blades.

Demonstrate how to hold the scissors and allow your child to become comfortable with them before beginning to use them with paper and other materials. We recommend starting with cutting materials such as paper, leaves, clay, and playdough.

Roll your clay or playdough into a long snake-like shape and let them hold it with one hand while using the other to cut off small sections. Paper can be made into rectangle strips with a pencil mark at one inch intervals along the paper to show your child where to cut. This will improve their control and accuracy when cutting.

For a more advanced challenge try cutting along a spiral guideline or cutting out images from a magazine. Encourage the simultaneous use of both hands to hold the scissors and paper and save your paper cutouts to create some mosaic art!

There are also many activities to begin exploring grip control, such as our clothespin activity and using spray bottles for cleaning and water play, before we start using scissors.

What they learn

Teaching your child to use scissors gives them an essential skill and helps to develop their fine motor skills from an early age.

Ages

This activity is suitable for ages 2 years and above.