Decorating Telescopes for Fine Motor Skill Building

(18 months and up)

I love stickers for 3 reasons:

1. They keep kiddos entertained F O R E V E R

2. Taking stickers off of the pad encourages a three-digit grasp (tripod grasp) and strengthens the thumb 👍muscles which are an important building block for all aspects of prehension (grasp)

3. Taking stickers off of a pad encourages higher level bilateral coordination (using both hands together in a coordinated way) I’m always looking for smaller items that encourage one hand to stabilize while the other hands manipulates (places stickers) and these toilet paper rolls are 👌

✍️Why am I always talking about the importance of thumb strength and the development of proper grasp?

Because if encouraged early on through simple play like this, kids can avoid awkward grasp patterns down the road.

I treat so many kids in the clinic who don’t have a functional grasp due to weak arches of the hands and poor thumb strength improper grasp patterns on a writing utensil cause quick fatigue of the hand during writing tasks and can (not always) lead to an overall negative association with all things handwriting related.

Get some stickers from the dollar store and some toilet paper rolls and you’re good to go! Also my son for some reason believes he can spy things more easily through his “telescope”