Working on fine motor skills through play is natural. Here, you’ll find the very best fine motor toys designed to promote and support a variety of therapy skills. These occupational therapy toys support the development of precision, dexterity, hand strength, and coordination, through play. Let’s talk Fine Motor Toys!
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Fine Motor Toy Ideas
Today is going to be FUN! I am beyond excited to share the very best fine motor toys that support development of hand strength, dexterity, precision. We’ll also cover why these occupational therapy toys support fine motor development, and cover a little about an occupational therapist’s perspective on what makes them such amazing tools for building hand strength, dexterity, motor control, and fine motor coordination.
Here’s why: I love to share my OT perspective on helping kids develop skills, using fun and engaging therapy toys that kids are excited about.
Check out the items below, and add one of these fine motor toys to your therapy toolbox!
Fine Motor Toys
So often, therapists and teachers purchase items to use in their work using their own money. This giveaway offers a chance for you to win an item that will be useful in helping kids thrive.
And, given that kids are on screens more than ever before with all of the virtual learning and hybrid learning models being incorporated all over the world, therapists are seeing more need for active, physical play.
Because of that, I’m excited to share with these fine motor toys that help kids develop the motor skills they need!
One type of toy that is easy to start with when it comes to supporting fine motor skills is buckle toys. These soft toys with straps, buckles, and connectors are great for all ages.
Fine Motor Skills Toys
Here on The OT Toolbox, I’ve shared a lot of different toy suggestions, that are perfectly suited to meet specific needs, like fine motor strength, grasp, pincer grip, and dexterity. Toys like Tinker Toys and a Lite Brite toy are classic ideas to build skills. But, there are many ideas out there!
Some of these specifics can be found here:
- Building toys to build fine motor skills
- Eye-hand coordination toys
- Toys to improve visual perception
- Wind-up toys for fine motor skills
- Toys to help with scissor skills
- Toys for wrist extension and wrist stability
- Toys that build math skills
- Toys to hep with dressing skills
- Toys to improve pencil grasp
Today, I wanted to go through some specific toys that develop fine motor skills. AND…as part of the Therapy Tools and Toys Giveaway, you can enter to win these items!
Therapy Toys for Fine Motor Skills
These are fine motor toys that you will find in therapy clinics. There is a reason why…because they are fine motor powerhouses! So, if you are looking for toy recommendations that build motor skills, this is it!
Amazon affiliate links are included below. You can read more about these items by checking out the links.
Learning Resources Avalanche Fruit Stand (affiliate link)- This toy is one of my FAVORITE ways to develop fine motor skills in kids. Kids use tweezers to manipulate fruit pieces and can work on colors, counting, matching, and other learning skills. The fine motor components are impressive! Address skills such as:
- Pincer and Tripod grasp development
- Hand strength
- Arch development
- Separation of the sides of the hand
- Wrist stability
- Wrist extension
- Eye-hand coordination
- Motor control
Pop Tubes– (affiliate link) There are so many ways that these fine motor tools build skills in kids. You can read about using Pop Tubes for bilateral coordination skills in this previous blog post, but beyond bilateral coordination, these bendable tubes can be used to help kids develop body awareness through tactile stimulation, fine motor skills auditory feedback, AND fine motor skills such as:
- Grasp
- Arch development and hand strength
- Separation of the sides of the hand
- Eye-hand coordination
- Bilateral coordination
- Proprioception to the hands (use them as a fidget tool)
Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog–(affiliate link) Have you seen this cute hedgehog toy? It’s a great way to help kids develop fine motor skills in a fun way. The bright colors are a nice way to work on matching, sorting, math skills, and color recognition, too. The chunky pegs make this fine motor tool a great toy for toddlers, but the hedgehog’s cute factor makes it a great fine motor activity for older children as well. These fine motor skills are addressed with this toy:
- Eye-hand coordination
- Pincer grasp
- Grasp development
- Hand strength
- Motor planning
Bucket of Perler Fuse Beads– (affiliate link) This bucket of beads is the perfect way to build so many fine motor skills. I love working with perler beads with children because you can target many skills, and it’s a great fine motor activity for older children that may benefit from fine motor work. This bucket of perler beads makes my recommendation list for it’s fine motor benefits:
- Pincer grasp
- In-hand manipulation
- Separation of the sides of the hand
- Open thumb web-space
- Dexterity
- Precision
- Wrist stability
- Eye-hand coordination
Jenga Game-(affiliate link) This classic game is a fine motor powerhouse that kids love. As a therapist, I love to use this game to build fine motor skills, because it’s such an open-ended activity. You can play the Jenga game, but you can use the blocks in building activities and pretend play activities, too. Consider the fine motor benefits of this game:
- Precision
- Dexterity
- Separation of the sides of the hand
- Eye-hand coordination
- Motor planning
- Motor control
Coogam Wooden Mosaic Puzzle– (affiliate link) This pixel puzzle comes with a wooden board, a puzzle booklet, and 370 small block pieces in 8 different colors. Children can use this fine motor toy to develop so many fine motor and visual motor skills. Use it to copy and build letters and numbers, shapes, and pictures. This toy is great for math concepts, too. This is a powerful toy!
- Precision
- Eye-hand coordination
- Visual motor skills
- Pincer grasp
- In-hand manipulation
- Open thumb web-space
3D Building Block Gear Shapes-(affiliate link) This building toy is a fine motor goldmine. Kids can construct 3D shapes or they can copy figures and work on visual motor skills. Use this fine motor toy to work on skills such as:
- Hand strength
- Arch development
- Separation of the sides of the hand
- Bilateral coordination
- Pinch and grip strength
- Wrist stability
Coogam Wooden Blocks Puzzle Brain Teasers Toy Tangram– (affiliate link) This puzzle toy is a fantastic addition to have in your therapy bag, classroom, or home. Kids can complete the fine motor puzzles and use it as a brain break to learning. Plus, there are so many visual motor benefits to this toy:
- Visual motor integration
- Eye-hand coordination
- Precision
- Wrist stability
- Wrist extension
- Separation of the sides of the hand
- In-hand manipulation
- Open thumb web-space
Mini Squigz– (affiliate link) Squigz are such a great fine motor toy for kids. Use them to build on one another or to stick to a wall or protective plexiglass surface. The sticking suction cap toys provide resistive feedback that not only strengthens little hands, but offers a proprioceptive sensory feedback, too. Here are more fine motor benefits to this toy:
- Hand strength
- Arch development
- Separation of the sides of the hand
- Eye-hand coordination
- In-hand manipulation
- Precision and dexterity
Straw Constructor STEM Building Toy– (affiliate link) Using STEM toys to support fine motor skills is a powerful strategy. Read more about STEM fine motor activities.
This fine motor toy is such a fun way to help kids develop and strengthen motor skills. Even better, is that this building toy can become a gross motor toy, too. Containing 300 pieces of plastic straws and connecting pieces, this construction toy helps kids develop so many areas:
- Bilateral coordination
- Visual motor skills
- Eye-hand coordination
- Pincer grasp
- Tripod grasp
- Hand strength
- Arch development
- Separation of the sides of the hand
- In-hand manipulation
Pincer Grasp Toys
Toys to improve pincer grasp include:
Affiliate links are included below.
Hand Strength Toys
Affiliate links are included below.
- Linking Chain Toy
- Froggy Feeding Fun
- Froogly Building Set
- Mini Squigz
- LEGO
- Coogam Wooden Geoboard
- TomYou Building Blocks
- Race Track Car Adventure
- Educational Insights Design and Drill
- Clay Dinosaurs Play Set
Fine Motor Games
Affiliate links are included below.
More Therapy Toys
Check out the therapy toy ideas listed in the blog posts below. Each article covers a different area of child development.
- Fine Motor Toys
- Gross Motor Toys
- Pencil Grasp Toys
- Toys for Reluctant Writers
- Toys for Spatial Awareness
- Toys for Visual Tracking
- Toys for Sensory Play
- Bilateral Coordination Toys
- Games for Executive Functioning Skills
- Toys and Tools to Improve Visual Perception
- Toys to Help with Scissors Skills
- Toys for Attention and Focus
PRINTABLE LIST OF TOYS FOR Fine Motor Skills
Want a printable copy of our therapist-recommended toys to support fine motor skills?
As therapy professionals, we LOVE to recommend therapy toys that build skills! This toy list is done for you so you don’t need to recreate the wheel.
Your therapy caseload will love these FINE MOTOR toy recommendations. (There’s space on this handout for you to write in your own toy suggestions, to meet the client’s individual needs, too!)
Enter your email address into the form below. The OT Toolbox Member’s Club Members can access this handout inside the dashboard, under Educational Handouts. Just be sure to log into your account, first!
Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.
