A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
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A picture is worth a thousand words, but imagine its value when it also includes corresponding text that not only describes, but engages children and educates adults.
In Fine Motor ABC from Skill Builder Books, the photos and text come together to create a valuable print or ebook resource for parents, teachers, and therapists that includes 26 activities to develop children’s foundational and functional fine motor skills.
Despite our best attempt at using clear and concise language, often simply seeing something will bring much more clarity. Each activity in Fine Motor ABC has a large photograph that shows what a child’s hand and/or body should look like to obtain maximum benefit from each task. Children are drawn to the colored pictures and can develop self-assessment skills and monitor their own progress by comparing how they look to what they see on the page.
Are my fingers holding the pencil like the picture shows? Can I keep my treasure in place when writing?
Children thrive when they have ownership and interest. As adults we can direct them, but something only truly matters when it matter to them. Having tools that not only build skills but engage and involve is paramount for success. Eye catching photographs are one technique used in Fine Motor ABC, while kid friendly phrasing is another.
The rhyming children’s text that accompanies each activity gives a quick, fun, and engaging description that the child can understand and internalize. It not only gets kids interested by approaching them from their angle, but provides simple vocabulary to use when completing or discussing each task. This allows for continued communication about what to do and how to do it, building confidence and helping to generalize between different settings.
The simple rhyme serves as a reminder, either given by an adult or recalled by the child, to facilitate improved performance.
An engaged child is a huge piece of the puzzle, however doesn’t fully complete the picture. Guidance needs to be given for what would be most helpful to engage in. This reinforces the importance of adult education. While helping our children develop fine motor skills, an understanding of what activities to do needs to be accompanied by how to do it, and why it is important. This ensures that the adult will place value on the task and be encouraged to continue to provide the child opportunities to further develop skills.
The adult text for each task in Fine Motor ABC provides a complete view of fine motor development while empowering readers with straightforward, understandable, and applicable information.
Weight-bearing activities can now consistently be included prior to handwriting and fine motor tasks because of an understanding of their benefit.
The combination of photographs and text in Fine Motor ABC creates opportunities to develop skills for success in children of all abilities. Designed for kids age 4 to 7, it includes an alphabet focus to facilitate literacy development, sign language to support kinesthetic learning, and rhyming words to reinforce cognitive development.
If a pictures is worth a thousand words, then this comprehensive tool is invaluable for building fine motor skills.
- Print and ebook versions of Fine Motor ABC are available at Skill Builder Books.
- A print copy can also be ordered on Amazon: Fine Motor ABC: Alphabet Themed Activities to Strengthen Fine Motor Skills
Guest writer Stacie Erfle, MS, OTR/L is a Pediatric Occupational Therapist who loves books and helping children of all abilities learn and grow. These two passions came together to create Skill Builder Books, children’s books with the purpose of skill development and increased independence.
What professionals are saying about Fine Motor ABC:
“I recommend Fine Motor ABC for all of my students. It’s a valuable tool for kids with typical development and for those with delayed motor skills.”
– Melissa Whitten, Preschool Teacher
“Written by a pediatric Occupational Therapist, this short picture book gets right to the heart of how to support fine motor skills children need for everyday activities such as playing, feeding, dressing, cutting, writing and more.”
– Christie Kiley, MamaOT (mamaot.com)
“Fine Motor ABC is a great book for Occupational Therapists, teachers, and parents or anyone who works with kids. Each letter of the alphabet addresses a fine motor skill with a quick and easy description of the task. There are big, bright images and corresponding hand signs for kids to copy. The engaging description of the activities really had my kids interested in reading through the book.”
– Colleen Beck, The OT Tool Box (theottoolbox.com)
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