Pom-Pom Transfer Pincer Grasp Activity for Toddlers
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My little guy just turned 2 and I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with things to keep him occupied. He is so much different from my daughter in that he is in constant motion. He literally does not hold still for much for very long. So when he started doing this activity without any direction from me, I jumped at keeping it out for him. This pom-pom transfer pincer grasp activity is great to practice the pincer grasp with. This grasp typically shows up around 10 months old.
Items for Pom-Pom Transfer Pincer Grasp Activity for Toddlers
It is so easy to set this activity up, you literally just need two items.
- Medium sized pom-poms
- Silicone candy mold (we got ours from IKEA)
You could also have a small wooden bowl to put the pom-poms in, but that is optional. Since my son did this activity on his own, we didn't have a wooden bowl out. He just saw the silicone tray out and the pom-poms and started doing it himself.
Developmental Skills Being Used
There are many great skills your toddler or preschooler is working on with this activity:
- Fine motor skills – pincer grasp, finger strength
- Visual-motor skills – eye-hand coordination
- Gross motor skills – crossing midline (have the pom-poms placed on the non-dominate hand side for this to work), and bilateral coordination
Pom-pom Transfer Activity Adaptations
I mentioned this above, but if you want to add in some extra crossing midline action, place the pom-poms on the non-dominate side of your child. So if they are right handed, place the pom-poms on the left etc. Your child may not have a dominant hand yet (no worries if they don't, they won't decide this until ages 4-5). If that is the case, see which hand they tend to use the most and place the pom-poms on the opposite side. Encourage them to finish with the hand they start with.
You can also begin to encourage some color matching and talk about colors. See if they can match the same colors together in a row. Talk about their favorite colors, count how many pom-poms of each color you have in the pile etc.
Want more hands-on activity ideas? Check out my resources below.
Heather Greutman, COTA
Heather Greutman is a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant with experience in school-based OT services for preschool through high school. She uses her background to share child development tips, tools, and strategies for parents, educators, and therapists. She is the author of many ebooks including The Basics of Fine Motor Skills, and Basics of Pre-Writing Skills, and co-author of Sensory Processing Explained: A Handbook for Parents and Educators.