What are manipulative skills?
Manipulative skills are a set of skills needed and developed over time by young children; these are the fundamental skills for each movement with small apparatus before moving onto larger movements and bigger apparatus.
Manipulative skills are developed over time and help to develop motor skills involving an object, small motor skills to hold and grip smaller objects such as a pencil or pen.
Over time larger gross motor skills begin to develop using generally legs and arms for actions such as catching or receiving the ball and throwing the ball. Each action also helps to develop coordination depth perception and tracking which ultimately develop further the older children get and the more active they are.
Activities to encourage Manipulative skills
There are a range of different activities we can encourage children to partake in to encourage the development of their manipulative skills. There are some such as a teacher blowing a feather out of their hands into the air for the children to track as it falls then catch.
Another activity which can encourage these skills is where a hoop is laid out and the child throws a bean bag into the hoop to encourage depth perception.
