Many 5-year-old reception children tend to have a well-established preferred or dominant hand they use to
5 Year Old Grasp
draw and write
with. Their elbow is tucked in closer to their body as they use what is technically referred to as a “Dynamic Tripod Grasp” to hold the pencil in their hand. This is a mature grasp where there is precise opposition between the index and middle fingers and thumb as they hold the pencil near the tip and use their helping hand to purposefully hold the paper in place. A young reception child can typically copy a cross, circle, square and triangle and begins to draw these independently as well as learns to copy diamonds and write letters and numbers and draws. Under supervision you can encourage your five-year-old to develop their hand skills in play activities such as those listed below.
Activities to help develop hand skills
- Cut out more complex shapes using a pair of scissors
- More complex arts and crafts using scissors, tape, glue, hole punch and stapler.
- Put together interlocking puzzles of at least 6 pieces
- More complex manipulation toys such as creating designs on a geoboard.
