Threading a needle isn’t as easy as it looks. At least not for a kid. Neither is shuffling a deck of cards, or tying your shoelaces. It all takes practice. And at one point all of us had to learn these fine motor skills the hard way as children, by trial and error. There’s a wide range of difficulties and strengths that come with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and one of the areas that often requires targeted intervention is the use of fine motor skills. By definition, these are skills that involve the use of small muscles in the hands and fingers. Fine motor skills are things like buttoning a shirt, writing, playing an instrument, or performing tasks with small objects, such as assembling a jigsaw puzzle. Children with autism in Toronto need a little extra help in this department, and Monarch House offers various autism services that can be of assistance, including occupational therapy. With a little practice and patience, autism therapy can play a crucial role in improving these skills. 

Here are ten helpful ways autism therapy can enhance fine motor skills in children with autism.

1. Occupational Therapy (OT) 

Occupational therapy for children with autism is often a key starting place for developing fine motor skills. At Monarch House, our therapists use a variety of techniques such as finger dexterity tasks, hand strengthening exercises, and activities that encourage hand-eye coordination. Some of our OT sessions might include fun tasks like playing with playdough, threading beads, or doing puzzles. These activities are also highly practical. They are designed to progressively build hand strength and precision.

2. Sensory Therapy

Sometimes the ‘feel’ of an object gets in the way of a child being able to manipulate that object effectively. For this reason, sensory therapy is a big part of developing fine motor skills in children with autism. At Monarch House we offer sensory therapy to help individuals process and respond to sensory information more effectively. We engage your child in activities that involve different textures, such as sand or rice play, or plasticine. This can improve hand control and tactile feedback. This makes it easier for individuals to perform tasks requiring fine motor precision.

3. Visual-Motor Integration Exercises

Have you ever known exactly how you’re supposed to do something, in your head, but once you try to do it in real life, your body just doesn’t cooperate the way it is supposed to? Kind of like making a house of cards, or folding a paper airplane. At Monarch House, improving visual-motor integration is one of the areas we work with. It involves coordinating visual input with motor responses and timing. It’s a step-by-step kind of process. Some of our therapists might try out activities like copying designs, tracing shapes, or engaging in drawing tasks to enhance this coordination. Exercises like these help individuals with autism better align their visual perception with their hand movements. 

4. Adaptive Equipment

There are tools to help make fine motor control a little easier for children with autism. In the industry we call it “customized adaptive equipment.” Simply put, they make fine motor tasks more accessible. Some of these tools include pencil grips, specially designed utensils, or adaptive keyboards. At Monarch House, our occupational therapist will have some of these for your child to try. We encourage you to get some for the home as well. They can help to reduce the difficulty of tasks and promote greater independence in your child. By using these tools, your child with autism can practice and improve their fine motor skills in a more manageable way.

5. Strength and Coordination Activities

Sometimes you just need to work hard to get those gains. That’s when we hit the gym—for hands! Our occupational therapists will work with your child on activities that build hand and finger strength. This can go a long way towards improving fine motor skills. Monarch House therapists might incorporate activities such as squeezing stress balls, using therapy putty, or engaging in hand exercises that strengthen the muscles involved in fine motor tasks. If your child wants to develop the ability to perform tasks with precision and control, improved strength in the hands really helps.

6. Interactive Play

The importance of play for children with autism can’t be overlooked. At Monarch House, supervised, interactive play is both enjoyable and beneficial for your child. Our occupational and behavioural therapists often use games and activities that require manual manipulation, such as building blocks, Lego sets, or interactive toys, to improve fine motor skills. Play not only makes therapy engaging but also provides natural opportunities for practicing and refining motor skills as well as learning things like playground etiquette..

7. Practice, Practice, Practice

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Consistent practice is key to fine motor skill development. At Monarch House, our therapists design routines and repetitive activities to help reinforce fine motor skills. We do this at the centre but you should also incorporate these at home. We work with repetitive tasks to build muscle memory. Some examples include completing the same puzzle over and again, drawing the same shape, or tying knots. This repetition helps to enhance motor control over time.

8. Task Modification

At Monarch House, our therapists can help your child by making large tasks (like learning to tie their shoelaces) into smaller pieces. We gradually break down the complicated process into smaller, manageable steps to help your child incrementally build fine motor skills. Our occupational therapists might modify the tasks by simplifying them (only one loop in the bow)  or offering step-by-step guidance as the task is carried out. Our approach attempts to take away the frustration that’s involved in the early process. When your child completes a stage and finds success, this will encourage their continued effort and improvement.

9. Social Interaction Opportunities

Who said working on fine motor skills is no fun? We can simultaneously work on social skill development for children with autism while we are developing motor skills. Playing board games, cards, or participating in group crafts and other social interactions often involve activities that require fine motor skills. Autism therapy that includes group activities and social skills training provides a natural context for practice. All the while fostering social connections.

10. Parental Involvement and Home Practice

We believe in getting the whole family involved: siblings, parents, even grandparents. We find the more people from home that are involved in the therapeutic process, the better. It can significantly impact progress. Our highly trained occupational therapists can provide your family with fine motor strategies and activities that you can take home to practice. If you can slowly integrate these practical sessions into your daily routines and activities, you can support and reinforce the skills your child is working on in a familiar environment.

At Monarch House we have an interdisciplinary team that works on services for autism in Toronto. From occupational therapists to behavioural analysts, we can assist your child with the development of fine motor skills. There is a multifaceted process that benefits from a variety of therapeutic approaches. From strength training exercises, to adaptive equipment, and interactive play, each method offers unique advantages. With patience and practice, and the skills learned in our autism services, your child with autism can develop greater control, precision, and strength in their fine motor abilities. Overall, this leads to  greater independence and therefore an noticeable improvement in their quality of life.