Graphomotor skills are important in child development because they allow children to improve their abilities when they begin to draw or write, which allows them to be more skilled in manual or specific activities such as reading and writing.

What is graphomotor skills?

Graphomotor skills refer to the exercise performed with the body when writing or drawing. This term is based on the stimulation of fine motor skills.

This means that these are the exercises that involve small muscle groups that involve total or almost total mastery of the movements.

Note that the word grafomotricidad comes from grafo (writing) and motriz (movement). So it is something like the movement that is done when writing. In childhood, graphomotor skills play a very important role as they help the child in the process of learning to write and also help to improve their motor skills and control their movements.

This concept, which has been in education for years, is gaining more and more strength among parents, who strive to incorporate several of these activities in what their children do.

Stages of development of graphomotor skills in children

There are some stages of graphomotor development in children that you should keep in mind, they are the following:

Pregraphism (0-2 years)

At this stage children acquire the ability to take an object such as pencil, crayons, crayons or colors and make small strokes, although these usually have no sense or order. However, their movements can be detected as impulsive since they do not yet coordinate their hands (they are not able to distinguish what they are tracing).

Scribbling (2-3 years)

Here children make their first scribbles, a little more defined, i.e., they can make some circles or sweeps. They begin to exercise the elbow joint with flexion and extension movements of the arm. In addition, they develop greater control in wrist movements and better grasp the pencils and colors, gradually make more independent strokes and is following his drawings with his eyes, which previously did not worry him.

Geometric figures (3-4 years old)

From the age of three, the child can observe what he/she draws and tries little by little to control that movement (coordinates eye with hand), tries to paint on lines and combine colors, even if he/she is not very sure how to do it. At 4 years of age, the pre-schematic stage begins, in which children start to think about what to draw before doing it, and they also start incorporating details to their drawings, being easier and easier to identify what they draw.

Figurative drawings (4-5 years)

The child begins to distribute the space for drawing, differentiates a little the sizes and proportions and begins to link his or her emotions and the colors he or she uses.

Writing (5-6 years)

 At this stage, children already have a good command of pencils and strokes, and they are beginning to write, so they acquire more sense. They have better use of proportions, combine colors better and associate drawings with what they want to express or write.

Objectives of graphomotor skills

In infancy, graphomotor skills help children acquire the ability to express their knowledge and thoughts through graphic representations such as writing and painting, with this the child becomes more and more precise when moving his forearm, hand, fingers and wrist, doing it more and more freely and independently.

Graphomotor skills help prevent motor difficulties in the child, such as incorrect sitting postures, inadequate pencil pressure when using the pencil, visual problems, among others. It also helps to have a good handwriting.

Activities to work on graphomotor skills in Children

There are some activities that can be worked on to improve graphomotor skills in children, these are some of them:

Graphomotor skills with numbers and letters

Graphomotor skills with numbers and letters is a phase prior to writing as it involves training them to perform basic movements and with correct directionality. Trying to make numbers and letters, little by little until they get it right completely.

Once the children get the numbers and letters correct, they can do subtraction and addition on paper up to learning mathematics through games, readbest  short stories for kids and play games to learn the hours of the watch for kids.

In Kiddus we have watches suitable for them to learn the time without problems and in an easy way.

Creative graphomotor skills with paints and brushes

With this practice, the children's precision in drawing and painting improves, and they learn more about color and can improve their color combinations.

Fit and unfit puzzles for children

This exercise also helps children to be more precise and have better control of their hands. In addition, they are clearer about the concepts of size and shapes.

Trace animals and join objects that are related

 It helps them to have better coherence and precision, in addition to relating objects or weaving stories in front of them, making figures and identifying different shapes.

Graphomotor exercises in the labyrinth game

 It helps to have more precision, to draw stronger and more defined lines, as well as to follow and complete them.

Accompany the rhythm of the songs with the hands

It helps children to have more rhythm, to associate rhythm and music and to have more motor skills, it also encourages them to dance, so they can have more motor skills.

Filling geometric figures with plasticine

This exercise stimulates creativity and is also very relaxing, requires little adult intervention and also contributes to precision, helps stimulate the brain, is pleasant to the touch and can combine colors and make different shapes and figures.

Crumpling pieces of paper

This technique allows the development of fine motor coordination, it also helps concentration and agility with their hands. A good idea is to crumple the pieces of paper and then glue them on a sheet of paper to make a figure.

Free strokes on rice, grains or sand

In addition to stimulating creativity, it improves precision by following lines that compose figures with the grains or sand. It helps the child to trace and glue better, which also contributes to a better control of his hands. With these traces you can also use small figures of edible pastes, cotton or pebbles.

Benefits of working on graphomotor skills in children 

Graphomotor skills allow children to adequately develop the movements of their upper limb, especially the hand and fingers, and they can also make writing and drawing features. 

Some of the benefits of graphomotor skills are that it helps to prevent later anomalies when writing, such as letter turns, direction, precision and strength when drawing, among others.

It also activates the brain, stimulates it, relaxes it and helps the child to focus and focus their interest. Another advantage is that it contributes to control their movements and stimulate their fine motor skills, it also generates creative energy in the child, helps to discriminate colors, shapes, strokes and sizes. When they color, it forces them to manage space and to project the way they see the world, that is, it allows them to communicate more assertively and to externalize their thoughts, which is very positive for their parents, caregivers or teachers.

Conclusion

Graphomotor skills stimulate children to draw and have more control with the pencil or colors, undoubtedly affects their learning process and also in their motor development, so it is very important that you incorporate some of the activities that we tell you here so that the kids have a better development and above all be very happy, learning, advancing in their educational process and enjoying different activities.