Finger Marble Maze

Blog
Written By Ashley Thurn

This little Finger Marble Maze has been with me since I began practicing OT and it never lets me down!  The children use their fingers to pinch the marble from one side of the maze to the other side.  The idea of this activity is to encourage an appropriate pencil grip.  

All you need to make this Finger Marble Maze is: 

  1. two blue pieces of felt

  2. brightly colored thread

  3. a sewing machine

  4. 1 marble

Here is all the different skills this maze addresses.

  • Encourages an appropriate Triopd Grasp by strengthening the three fingers involved (thumb, index and middle finger)

  • Strengthens the muscle of the thumb (thenar eminence) for better prehension skills

  • Finger Isolation (sometimes the child uses the index or thumb to push it through vs pinch)

  • Bilateral coordination (using both hands together in a coordinated way)

  • Crossing midline which helps to synchronize the left and right hemispheres of the brain

  • Visual tracking skills

  • Attention

  • Task Perseverance

Ashley Thurn

Ashley Is a pediatric Occupational Therapist based in Miami Florida and is more importantly a wife and a mother of two amazing kids.  Ashley has a Master's degree in Occupational Therapy from the University of Florida and specializes in normal and delayed childhood development, fine motor skills, handwriting, picky eating/food aversions, childhood nutrition, sensory processing and autism spectrum disorders.  

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