Ways Painting Can Strengthen Motor Skills

Painting While Standing

• Painting at an easel or simply standing in front of a large piece of cardboard helps your child develop gross motor skills as he paints with his entire arm while maintaining his standing balance, according to The Bing School at Stanford. Painting large surfaces also strengthens visual motor integration skills, also known as hand-eye coordination, because he has to constantly reassess how his brush strokes create a larger picture or image. Using a small paint roller strengthens his motor coordination by requiring him to maintain pressure while rolling a line of paint.

Painting While Pinching

• Painting while maintaining a pincher grasp strengthens fine motor skills and coordination, according to the children's occupational resource website, PediaStaff.com. Mix a teaspoon of colorful gelatin powder with a few drops of water and have your child use miniature marshmallows as her painting tool. Pinching the marshmallow while dotting or streaking it on the paper helps strengthen the small muscles in her fingers and hands. Another way to strengthen the pincher grasp while painting is to dilute a few drops of food coloring and have your child apply drops of colored water to the paper using an eyedropper.

Finger Painting

• One of the earliest ways children paint is with their fingers. Whether he's using traditional finger paint purchased from a store or homemade finger paint made with cornstarch and food coloring, applying pressure with his paint-covered finger strengthens fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, according to the occupational resource center, Therapy Street for Kids. Encourage him to make single dots with his finger in addition to streaks and lines. The focus and precision needed to make a single dot using the tip of his finger also strengthens hand-eye coordination and fine motor control.

Different Tools

• Unlike her finger or a stiff wooden craft stick, a paintbrush or feather won't apply paint very well if she puts too much pressure on the tip or moves the tool too quickly. The precise motions needed when painting with flexible painting tools helps strengthen your child's fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. For young toddlers, a thick paintbrush with a wide handle is a good transitional tool from finger painting to using a traditional, narrower paintbrush, according to Therapy Street for Kids. The chunkier size of a larger brush strengthens the motor control in her hand and wrist.