Learning to use scissors
Learning to use scissors requires coordination such as fine motor, bilateral integration and eye-hand coordination. Scissor skills require instruction and practice in order to develop this fully.
Does your child have a difficulty using scissors? Here are some tips to help in this area.
Learning to use scissors and cutting accurately is a skill we all take for granted.
Cutting requires the coordination of lots of skills such as:
- Fine motor coordination
- Bilateral coordination
- Eye-hand coordination
Like many other skills, scissor skills develop sequentially and require the appropriate instructions and practice to fully develop.
Before your child learns to use scissors, they should be able to conduct the following skills.
- Use cutlery
- Open and close their hand
- Use their hands together in a leader/assist fashion (one hand holding a pop bottle while the other takes off the lid)
- Isolate the thumb, index, and middle fingers.
- Stabilise their shoulder, forearm, and wrist.
Once your child masters the above skills, they will be ready to learn how to use scissors.
For more ideas on how to help bilateral integration please see below:
https://www.facebook.com/TreeTopsChildrensOccupationalTherapy/posts/3287343961301059
Did you know, bilateral integration is a key area that also helps handwriting!
https://www.facebook.com/TreeTopsChildrensOccupationalTherapy/posts/2173944122641054