Recently I noticed that Darah’s coloring and drawing is starting to look much more controlled than it used to. When she is “writing words like Mommy” her grip on the pen is very close to accurate, and she is drawing shorter, more carefully placed lines and curves. It has been very exciting to watch, but it took me a little while to figure out what has caused this progression.
But then I remembered: tonging! At Darah’s school, several of the lessons involve the use of small tongs to pick up objects and move them from one area to another. At first glance, this may not seem like a very interesting or useful exercise (at least that’s what I thought), but I have since learned that this particular type of lesson helps with the following:
- hand-eye coordination
- developing the pincer grasp
- overall strengthening of the hand muscles, which also helps prepare a child for writing
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