Keeps hands closed with thumbs tucked in against palm most of the time.
Brings hands to mouth when lying on side or tummy.
Explores objects with mouth.
Holds rattle for a couple of seconds when placed in palm of hand.
Hands are open most of the time when not holding objects.
Starts to reach out to toys or objects.
Uses two hands to scoop up toys.
Reaches out to objects and faces with both hands to grasp them.
Plays with objects, by banging, shaking, turning them around in their hands.
Feels and plays with toys and everyday objects of different textures, for example, smooth, rough, soft, furry and sticky.
Passes toys from hand to hand.
Holds two toys, one in each hand.
The way young babies' eyes follow the movements of their fingers and toes.
How young babies grasp and clutch at anything in reach.
How young babies begin to reach out towards things in which they are interested.
How young babies use their hands and mouths to explore objects.
Ways in which young babies begin to explore different textures.
How young babies learn to hold first one object and then more than one object.
Play games, such as offering a small toy and taking it again to rattle, or sail through the air.
Encourage young babies in their efforts to gradually share control of the bottle with you.
Hang toys from a 'baby gym' frame just above babies' hands or legs so that they make accidental contact with the toys with their hands and feet when they move. Later, help them to pat and swipe the toys so that they start to do this by themselves.
Encourage babies to naturally feel and experience the different textures they come into contact with during their everyday routines, for example, different mats, fleecy blankets, a wet sponge, a dry towel, their milk bottle. As babies discover their hands, they will start to finger familiar objects that they encounter, such as your bangle or a soft rattle in their cot.
Bring a baby's hands together to encourage mutual finger play and to make them aware they have two hands.
When babies' hands lie open, touch your finger on their finger tips (palm side). They will soon learn to curl their fingers deliberately around your finger and to hold it.
Lie babies on their backs in cots or on the floor. Offer them a toy on their tummies or chests and help them to find and explore it with both hands. This is a helpful first step in finding objects.
Help babies reach out to grasp sound-making and other toys.
Provide plenty of opportunities to find out about different toys, by shaking a rattle, squeezing a squeaker, or ringing a bell. Use toys that are small and light enough for babies to hold and explore comfortably.
Help babies to explore a flat surface and pat their hands on it, making a sound. Later, play clapping games to help them discover their hands.
Encourage two-handed reach and play by offering babies their milk bottles, inviting them to reach and grasp with both hands.
Give babies opportunities to feel toys with smaller parts such as teething rings to help develop their finger movements.
Give babies ring rattles to hold with both hands and then transfer the toy from one hand to the other.
Help babies to bang toys that make a sound or that produce a musical sound when a large key or button is pushed. Show them what happens when they press the button.
Introduce finger games or rhymes such as 'This Little Piggy' or 'Tom Thumb' to help increase awareness of their hands and fingers.
Place a cube on a table or tray surface. Guide the babies' hands along the surface until their first (index) or second finger touches the cube. Then let them pick it up. At first, they may scoop it into the palm, but gradually, they'll start to use their thumb when grasping.
Have baskets of small colourful toys near to where you feed a young baby, or attached to the pram, buggy or soft chair.
Provide objects to be sucked, pulled, squeezed and held, to encourage the development of fine motor skills.
8-20 Months
Imitate and improvise actions they have observed, such as clapping and waving.
Become absorbed in putting objects in and out of containers.
Enjoy the sensory experience of making marks in damp sand, paste or paint. This is particularly important for babies who have a visual impairment.
Picks up things between thumb and fingers in an immature pincer grasp.
Stretches out with one hand to grasp toy if offered.
Looks at and pokes small objects such as crumbs with index finger.
Later, learns to pick up small objects easily between thumb and index finger (pincer grasp).
Can release toy from grasp by dropping or pressing against a firm surface, but cannot yet place down deliberately.
Holds an object in each hand and brings them together in the middle, for example, holds two blocks and bangs them together.
Repeats actions to explore object properties, for example, sound of rattle.
Uses index finger to point at objects.
Picks up larger objects such as a teddy or a ball.
Drops toys or objects deliberately.
Puts toys or objects into a container.
Takes toys or objects out of a container.
Helps turn pages in a book.
Holds pen or crayon using a palmar grasp and begins to scribble.
Removes pieces from inset puzzle and large pegs from pegboard.
Builds tower of two blocks.
Turns over container to tip out contents.
Drops blocks through large round hole in a posting box.
Babies' actions such as clapping, pointing, grasping and dropping things.
The ways babies pat, pinch and grasp sand, paste or paint.
How young babies begin to release toys from their grasp and drop things.
How babies play with containers and begin to put one thing inside another.
How babies explore small objects, such as crumbs.
Use feeding, changing and bathing times to share finger plays, such as 'Round and Round the Garden'.
Show babies different ways to make marks in dough or paint by swirling, poking or patting it.
Help babies to find a toy they are playing with when it slips out of their hand on a surface.
Partly cover a toy with a cloth and help babies to pull off the cloth and find the toy underneath.
Show babies how to knock two toys or objects together to make a banging sound, for example, two bricks.
Put noise-making objects such as rattles in a metal container and shake the tin. This will motivate children to explore inside and remove the objects.
Offer babies a box with objects of different sizes, textures and shapes. This will encourage them to reach inside and pull something out to use or play with.
Offer toys with dials, knobs and switches to develop different hand movements, like pushing, pulling, turning and pressing.
Offer a second object when babies are already holding one to encourage them to pass it to the other hand or to hold an object in each hand. Later, they may put the first object down.
Use toys with a push button to encourage use of one finger at a time and pushing or poking with the index finger.
When children start to practise releasing or throwing objects, show them where an object has fallen or attract their visual attention to it so that they learn where it has dropped.
Show children how cause and effect toys work. These toys might, for example, require you to pull a string to make something happen or open a box to make the music start.
Help children to take a single object out of a small container, such as a small rattle inside a toy saucepan.
Show children how to use one object on another and to explore toys with two parts that pull apart. This might include a small container with a lid or construction blocks that click together.
Introduce flexible cloth or plastic books with textures or flaps. Encourage children to turn pages after each page has been explored.
As children begin to deliberately throw objects away, try to catch them and quickly give them back. Develop this into a 'give and take' game. Where toys or objects give an auditory or visual reward, for example, dropping a noisy toy into a shiny tin, develop games and ask "Where's it gone?".
Provide resources that stimulate babies to handle and manipulate things, for example, toys with buttons to press or books with flaps to open.
Use gloop (cornflour and water) in small trays so that babies can enjoy putting fingers into it and lifting them out.
16-26 Months
Use tools and materials for particular purposes.
Begin to make, and manipulate, objects and tools.
Put together a sequence of actions.
Builds a tower with three blocks.
Holds pencil with tripod grip (between thumb and two fingers) no longer using palmar grasp.
Scribbles spontaneously and makes dots on paper. Later, begins to imitate circular scribble and draw vertical lines.
Places large round pegs in pegboard.
Fits round shapes into puzzle.
Posts round shape into posting box or shape sorter.
Builds a tower of up to six blocks.
Threads large beads onto firm cord, stick or pipe cleaner.
Shows a preference for one hand or the other, for example, reaches out with one hand more than the other to pick up toys and, over time, begins to show a definite hand preference.
Uses both hands together and in the middle (not to one side or the other) one to hold and the other to manipulate.
Uses appropriate actions to explore properties of objects, for example, turning, twisting, rolling and pressing.
Ways babies prefer to eat their food, such as grasping a spoon, using their fingers, or holding a fork.
How young children begin to recognise the conventional uses of some objects, such as a cup for drinking.
How children show they are beginning to prefer their right or left hand.
How children play with bricks and how they learn to build taller towers using more bricks as time goes by.
How children use both of their hands, for example, holding a toy with one hand and manipulating it with the other.
How children play with pieces of a puzzle.
How children explore the properties of new objects by turning, pressing or rolling them.
Treat mealtimes as an opportunity to help children to use fingers, spoon and cup to feed themselves.
Help young children to find comfortable ways of grasping, holding and using things they wish to use, such as a hammer, a paintbrush or a teapot in the home corner.
Choose toys that require more complex movements to make them work and stronger and better coordinated finger movements, such as turning a stiffer knob or pressing individual buttons.
Encourage individual finger use with toys that invite children to put fingers in small holes (such as a block with round slots and pegs). Taking small pegs from a board will encourage children to use their fingers. Encourage them to pick up small objects to develop their pincer grip (thumb and index finger).
Put a number of small objects in a bag and encourage children to feel inside and pull the toys out.
As building activities begin to interest children, show them how to stack one object on top of another, for example, put one brick on top of another and show them how to knock them down again so that they make a clatter. Take turns building and then knocking the bricks down.
Encourage children to put objects back in their places as part of everyday life in your setting - put used cups in the sink, toys back in a play box, paper in a bin and so on.
Children will develop coordination of hands and fingers as they explore the relationship between different containers and lids and learn to put a lid on a container.
Introduce simple posting activities, for example, dropping a ball into a shoebox with a large hole. Later, children will enjoy posting smaller objects and learning how to rotate their forearm so they start to experience twisting of the wrist.
Help children hammer pegs into a pegboard or play notes on a xylophone. This helps with the coordination needed to strike objects precisely.
Children at this stage often enjoy putting bricks in a bucket and then taking them out again. Show children how to tip the bucket so that they all fall out.
Play with water and show children how to pour water from a jug into a bowl.
Introduce stacking toys and show children how to take rings off and put rings on.
Make and cut out simple shapes from dough and draw shapes in the sand outside.
Help children unwrap parcels, removing the wrapping paper.
Introduce finger painting, making big, bright marks on paper. Cut potatoes together, to make potato prints.
Provide materials that enable children to help with chores such as sweeping, pouring, digging or feeding pets.
Provide sticks, rollers and moulds for young children to use in dough, clay or sand.
22-36 Months
Balance blocks to create simple structures.
Show increasing control in holding and using hammers, books, beaters and mark-making tools.
Picks up tiny objects accurately and quickly.
Places objects down neatly and precisely.
Builds a tower of up to seven cubes.
Turns pages in a book one at a time.
Scribble writes including 'V' shape and vertical lines.
Later, imitates drawing a simple face: circle for head, with eyes, nose and mouth.
Fits square shapes into a formboard and then later round, square and triangle shapes into a puzzle or posting box.
Fits increasingly small shapes and objects into holes during posting activities.
Threads large beads onto floppier cord, for example, washing line cord or a heavy shoelace.
Makes snips in paper with child scissors.
Folds paper in half.
Turns rotating handles.
Screws and unscrews jar lids, nuts and bolts.
Can put tiny objects into a small container.
How children are developing fine movements of their fingers and hands to grip, twist, bang and make marks.
How they are building up strength in their arms and hands through large muscle activities such as climbing.
How children learn to put objects down neatly and precisely.
How children learn to pick up very small objects.
How children's control of fine movement develops as they begin to turn the pages in a book, one at a time, or to fold paper.
How children begin to use scissors on paper.
The strategies children use to open a screw-topped jar.
Encourage children in their efforts to do up buttons or pour a drink.
Introduce toys that need more than one step to be completed.
Help children measure out food quantities for dinner, for example, pouring drink from a small jug into a children's cup or measuring a helping from a serving bowl into a child's bowl. Talk about "a lot", "a little", "more", and "no more".
Use stacking toys that are more challenging and require children to put the biggest ring on the bottom and the smallest on top. Take turns playing with equipment and show children how the beakers or rings fit in relation to one another and according to size.
Resource the home play area with cooking utensils and babies' clothes so that children can handle tools and materials meaningfully in their imaginative play.
Provide 'tool boxes' containing things that make marks, so that children can explore their use both indoors and outdoors.
30-50 Months
Engage in activities requiring hand-eye coordination.
Use one-handed tools and equipment.
Show increasing control over clothing and fastenings.
Show increasing control in using equipment for climbing, scrambling, sliding and swinging.
Demonstrate increasing skill and control in the use of mark-making implements, blocks, construction sets and small-world activities.
Understand that equipment and tools have to be used safely.
Can build tower of ten or more cubes.
Imitates making a train of cubes.
Threads large beads onto shoelace.
Cuts paper with scissors.
Holds pencil near point between first two fingers and thumb and uses it with good control.
Writes an 'X' form and a horizontal line.
Imitates drawing a circle.
Draws spontaneous and unrecognisable forms.
Draws person with head and one or two other features or parts.
The ways children manage to make things work successfully, such as when they wheel a buggy, turn a whisk or 'vacuum' the carpet.
The things that inspire children to want to create or construct.
The variety of skills children use to manipulate materials and objects, such as picking up, releasing, threading and posting objects.
Children's strategies, efforts and achievements in fastening and unfastening items such as containers, clothing and cupboards.
Children's skills in fixing, creating play worlds and using materials and equipment safely and appropriately.
Teach children the skills they need to use equipment safely, for example, cutting with scissors or using tools.
Check children's clothing for safety, for example, ensuring that toggles on coats and hoods cannot get tangled in tricycle wheels.
Introduce the vocabulary of direction, including, where appropriate, 'clockwise' and 'anticlockwise'.
Match pictures with objects and play with pictures and objects that can be sorted into two groups by size, shape or colour. Socks (big ones for adults and small ones for children) or cutlery work well.
Help children to develop their manual dexterity by showing them how to unwrap small objects covered in paper. Help them to use scissors, too – for example, to make collages from things you find outdoors together.
Encourage children to enjoy scribbling using thick pens and paintbrushes. Some children will enjoy copying a line across or up and down a sheet of paper or copying a large circle.
Show children how to make marks in dough and feel the marks they have made.
Make equipment available and accessible to all children for the whole of the day or session, if possible.
Provide activities that give children the opportunity and motivation to practise manipulative skills, for example, cooking, painting and playing instruments.
Provide opportunities for children to sometimes use all their fingers or the whole hand, for example with finger-paints or cornflour, and sometimes use just one finger, for example when making patterns in damp sand or paint.
Provide objects that can be handled safely, including small-world toys, construction sets, threading and posting toys, dolls' clothes and material for collage.
40-60+ Months
Explore malleable materials by patting, stroking, poking, squeezing, pinching and twisting them.
Use increasing control over an object, such as a ball, by touching, pushing, patting, throwing, catching or kicking it.
Manipulate materials to achieve a planned effect.
Use simple tools to effect changes to the materials.
Show understanding of how to transport and store equipment safely.
Practise some appropriate safety measures without direct supervision.
Use a range of small and large equipment.
Handle tools, objects, construction and malleable materials safely and with increasing control.
Children's preferred hand for putting on clothes or using a paintbrush.
Children's developing ball skills.
Children's play patterns, identifying the ways they show interest in using a range of equipment and materials.
The different ways children explore and manipulate materials.
The tools children use to achieve effects.
Some of the ways children demonstrate their understanding of the need for handling equipment safely, such as when they carry a chair, ensuring they point its legs towards the ground.
How children use their skills when creating something they need in their play, or want to give to a friend.
Encourage children's large arm and hand movements and activities that strengthen their hands and fingers, for example, throwing and catching.
Introduce and encourage children to use the vocabulary of manipulation, for example, 'squeeze' and 'prod', and the language of description, for example, 'spiky', 'silky', 'lumpy' and 'tall'.
Justify and explain why safety is an important factor in handling tools, equipment and materials, and have sensible rules for everybody to follow.
Teach skills where necessary and then give children the chance to practise them.
Teach children how to use tools and materials effectively and safely.
Talk with children about what they are doing, how they plan to do it, what worked well and what they would change next time.
Provide a range of left-handed tools, especially left-handed scissors, for children who need them.
Provide a wide range of materials, such as clay, that encourage manipulation.
Offer different tools, techniques or materials when the available tools are inadequate to achieve the desired effects.
Provide tweezers, tongs and small scoops for use in play and investigation.
Provide a range of construction toys of different sizes, made of wood, rubber or plastic, that fix together in a variety of ways, for example by twisting, pushing, slotting or magnetism.
Acknowledgements
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00012-2007CDO-EN