Fingergym Fine Motor Skills School Readiness Program

By Gayle Brook, Amy Wagenfeld, and Cathy Thompson

‘Fingergym™ is all about trying’   (Jack, age 5)


The importance of learning fine motor skills early in childhood is well recognised as a major contributor to better adjustment at school. Children who feel comfortable and confident at home with everyday tasks such as tying shoelaces are able to deal better with the challenges of new learnings and social experiences that a classroom brings. In the words of one experienced educator, "Simple skills like the ability to hold a pencil correctly or cut with scissors underpin a child's whole schooling and attitude to learning."
 
The Fingergym Fine Motor Skills School Readiness Program was developed by experienced Australian occupational therapy and education professionals in 2007 and is used in over 1000 preschools, prep, primary and early learning centres across the country. It remains popular with educators for its unique fun-based motivational learning approach. The most common feedback from educators is how much the children and themselves enjoy the program. 

Fingergym is an evidence-based, group rotation program incorporating play-based learning to encourage problem-solving by "having a go", no matter what the outcome. In this way, children learn confidence and resilience in the classroom while mastering essential developmental skills.

The program is appropriate for any preschool, kindergarten, prep, or primary educational setting and is sold on a whole-of-school use basis. It requires no training or ongoing costs. It includes a printed manual with over 60 downloadable PDF and Word resource files containing customisable forms, activity templates, monitoring forms, awards and rewards, and setting up tools. It includes over 140 activities covering aspects such as strengthening, kinaesthesia, proprioception, spatial planning, eye-hand coordination, fine motor speed, letter and number formation, and cutting.

Fingergym™ is based on a firm theoretical background and comes with full instructions, and a timed digital musical track to guide children through their activities. Helpful curriculum links to such areas as mathematics, science, language, reading, writing, and art allow integration of the program with teaching requirements.

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Impressive results for Fingergym from University of Sydney trial.

... After completing the program, 83 per cent of kindergarten and year 1 students showed improved fine motor skills, with 78 per cent reporting an improved ability to complete self-care tasks independently, such as dressing and shoelace-tying. The survey also revealed 100 per cent of teachers involved in the program reported a general improvement in their students' gross and fine motor skills, confidence and focus in the classroom.
[http://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2015/11/09/-little-hands--makes-a-big-difference-for-lifelong-learning.html]

About the Program

The program promotes the development of school readiness skills such as the ability to:

• organise work space and tools
• maintain a sitting position
• be aware of other people and their needs
• follow visual and auditory directions
• ask for help if needed
• initiate and complete a task
• problem-solve and actively investigate cause and effect situations
• transition from one task to another
• maintain attention
• risk take or have a go

The program has been successfully implemented with:

• children who have already been assessed by an occupational therapist and are participating in a fine motor program outside of the classroom or school
• children in kindergarten and preschool and prep-aged children identified by teachers as demonstrating difficulty with fine motor skills, including reluctance to use a pencil or ineffective use of other school tools
• children with specific diagnosed disorders, including intellectual impairment, speech and language impairment, autism spectrum disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
• children with fine motor weakness due to limited experience or opportunities to practise at home
• children with mild sensory integration problems, such as poor crossing of the midline of the body or tactile defensiveness
• children with visual convergence and eye-tracking problems
• children displaying anxiety over attempting new or challenging activities
• children displaying difficulty organising themselves, their belongings, or equipment
• children displaying difficulty in starting a task, staying on a task, or transitioning smoothly from one task to another
• children who have difficulty following instructions
• children displaying postural weakness or generally lacking in strength and endurance children demonstrating self-care difficulties with buttons, zips, shoelaces, and other fasteners.

Program Materials

Manual
Included in the manual is supportive basic theory about the development of fine motor skills and how important the acquisition of these skills are to a child’s early feelings of success in the classroom and overall early academic performance, different options for implementing the program in your own unique classroom situation, instructions on how to prepare and set up for the program, 140 fine motor main activities plus many other extension activities, and appendices containing a 24-session sample program, a list of all of the fine motor activities contained in this manual, skills checklists, some activity photographs, and various reproducible program information letters.

Resource Downloads
The resource downloads contain all of the documents included in the appendices of the manual so that they can be customised as required, and templates for suggested activities and awards. It is a valuable and time-saving resource for busy teachers.

Fingergyngles™ Music Tracks
The Fingergyngles™ downloadable digital music tracks accompanies the activities and assists the children to transition independently from one activity to the next with a catchy musical cue and the voices of two animal characters: Fidget the Fingergym Frog and Mani the Mouse. There are three tracks on the CD. Track 1 is an introductory track, and tracks 2 and 3 have different running times for the program: 16 minutes on Track 2 and 26 minutes on Track 3.

Frequently Asked QuestionS

Is Fingergym™ suitable for the older children as well as the Year 1 and 2s?

Although designed with the needs of students up to age 8, by incorporating more academic based activities into the program, Fingergym™ can easily and successfully be adapted for older students. Using the rotations format as a base; especially the 5 minute music track, is an ideal way to incorporate Fingergym™ into an older children’s classroom. For some older students who still struggle with focusing on tasks, getting started on writing tasks, or completing a task independently, Fingergym™ can be very motivating.

Here are some Fingergym™ extension ideas for older children:

• Practise copying skills from a whiteboard or blackboard
• Adjective, noun, verb, etc. identification and treasure hunt using chopsticks or clothespegs (Children identify word cards with designated parts of speech and retrieve and place them in a container using chopsticks or pegs)
• Orally brainstorrm ideas for a story and then write up an outline
• Follow written instructions to complete a simple art task such as origami
• Set up a series of upper extremity strengthening exercises such as push ups, crab walks, and wall push ups
• Help prepare some of the Fingergym™ worksheets for younger children such as tracing over the outline for mazes or cutting activities.
• Set up a series of simple math worksheets that are to be completed in 5 minutes

Is Fingergym™ suitable to be used in a single lesson of about 45 minutes once a week?
Optimally it is better to have more frequent sessions. Using the downloadable digital music track, Fingergym™ can be run as either a 16 minute complete running time session or a 25 minute running time session. Note: add in time for setting up.
A single session is fine, if that is all time permits in your classroom, but you might not see the results that a regular program would facilitate.

Having purchased Fingergym™ would I need to buy other resources in order to successfully run the program?

One of the benefits of this program is that we have developed many activities that call for easily accessible, everyday materials that most teachers have right at their fingertips. However, for initial set up and organizational purposes we suggest purchasing several large plastic storage containers for all of the bits and pieces that you are likely to acquire as you implement the Fingergym™ program in your classroom.
We have also included extensive supplies lists which can be posted on your classroom door. Parents might be able to provide you with some supplies that they have at home.
If your budget is tight we suggest that you go through the supplies list and determine which items you already have. Based on this list, select and implement the Fingergym™ activities that call for the materials that you have!

Does Fingergym™ have any provision for home practise sheets?
We have not specifically included home practise sheets. However the downloadable resources contain printable cutting and drawing activities that children can take home.
Another suggestion would be to run a Fingergym™ parent information session to demonstrate some of the program’s activities for home “practise,” such as using chopsticks or the pegging activities.
Consider preparing a send home a list of the activities (and supplies needed) done on Fingergym™ day(s) for potential home practice.