Hey Everyone!

Today’s post is all about finger isolation: what is it, why is it important, and how can you develop it at home. Finger isolation is the development of being able to “isolate” or individually use each finger of the hand. When children are developing they begin to use each finger individually; as infants, children tend to use the hand as one solid unit. Finger isolation is one of the first important developmental milestones that leads to children’s ability to write well with a pencil, type on a keyboard, play a musical instrument, tie shoes ect! If you’re wondering how to see if your child has good finger isolation, you can ask yourself:  does your preschooler or kindergartner avoid pointing? Do they tend to gesture in the direction of an object instead of pointing? Then these finger isolation tricks might be helpful for your child! You can also instruct them to tap each finger to their thumb (give them a demonstration so they can mirror you!), or tell them to sing the “itsy bitsy spider” complete with hand motions (this is an easy finger isolation hand motion).  If you’re still interested, please read further for additional activities for you and your child to do together.

Finger Isolation Crafts

• Make and play with finger puppets
• Finger painting
• Using a pointer finger to trace shapes in foam, slime, various sensory mediums
• Make “spaghetti” strings by rolling play-doh between the index finger and thumb
• Make a “finger soccer board” by folding up a small piece of paper into a triangular shape and have your child “flick” the “ball” into the goal

Finger Isolation Activities

• Pop bubbles
• Play “I spy” with items around the house and encourage your child to point
• Counting on fingers one at a time
• “Itsy Bitsy Spider”
• Shadow hand puppets using a flashlight
• Dampen fingers to pick up small items such as glitter, confetti, other small items
• Teaching common finger expressions such as “A okay”, thumbs up, finger guns etc
• “Lizard fingers”: this is one of my favorites that really makes kids laugh, stick small pieces of tape on each finger and have kids pretend to be a lizard and see what they can pick up around the room! (Make sure to have small items that can actually be picked up, we’ve had a couple failures with this activity!)

Disclaimer: This blog is for the sole purpose of reaching students on caseload for continuing enrichment activities and should not be used in replace of medical advice or treated as medical advice. The purpose of this blog is for education only. Adult supervision is recommended for every project, game, and activity featured on this blog. Please decide based on each individual activity if it is appropriate for your own child.