There are many ways that Wikki Stix are used for fine motor skills and this homemade floor race track is a favorite! We loved getting down on the floor…hello, core strength!) to make this DIY race track with wikki stix, but the fine motor benefits are even greater! Let’s break it down…
wikki stix for fine motor skills
If you aren’t familiar with wikki stix, then you should be because they are an occupational therapy prover’s favorite tool!
Wikki Stix are sticky strings that you can peel off and stick to things, but then they can re-stick. As an occupational therapist, this is one of my favorite OT tools! Build skills in:
- Pincer grasp
- Eye-hand coordination
- Separation of the sides of the hand
- Tactile defensiveness/discrimination (they have a sticky texture)
- Motor planning
- Range of motion
- Hand strength
- Visual motor skills
- Core strength
Plus, you can use wikki stix on various surfaces:
- Paper for tactile input to create borders around coloring areas
- Lines on paper, chalkboards, dry erase boards for a bumpy baseline
- The floor…like we did below!
- Windows to create a fun suncatcher
- Walls to work on the vertical plane
- SO many more ways!
Wikki Sticks Fine Motor Activity
We had a ton of fun with this activity this past week.
Have you played with Wikki Stix (also called Bendaroos…) This set came in a book that Big Sister had, but Wikki Sticks are widely used by OT’s working on handwriting, line awareness, fine motor skills…
We used them for a little fine motor play, visual perceptual skills, and most importantly, fun play with some matchbox cars!
We lined them up on our dining room floor and made a super fun race track for Little Guy’s cars. Pressing the sticky stings together requires a little pinch of fine motor strength, so this is excellent for working the little muscles in little hands.
Matching up the ends correctly, and creating two parallel lines is perfect for visual perceptual skills and line awareness. Both of these skills are vital for letter placement in handwriting.
We had SO much fun making roads, gates, and even a little parking lot.
We will definitely be playing racetrack again…soon!
