5 Minute Friday - Q-Tips!

Q-tips are a bathroom staple, but can also be used to develop so many skills for kids of all ages! The best news– minimal set up and clean up!

Babies

• Q-tips are a great way to facilitate developing grasp patterns in babies. Set out a few in front of the baby and encourage them to pick them up using a raking grasp. Once your baby is around 9 months old, it is appropriate to set just one out at a time to facilitate a pincer grasp.
• Once the baby has mastered picking up the q-tips, it is time to start working on releasing them! Place a small box or wide mouth bottle in front of them, and demonstrate releasing the q-tips into the containers. This addresses visual motor integration and fine motor skills, and sets the foundation for cleaning up!

Toddlers

• By toddlerhood, your child should have more refined elbow, wrist and hand control making it easier for them to drop q-tips into smaller openings such as a plastic bottle. You can even try poking holes into an old cereal box to create some resistance, and have your toddler push q-tips into the holes. This is great for addressing grading force, fine motor coordination, and facilitating pincer and tripod grasp patterns
• Taping 4+ q-tips together creates a great paint brush, just like a dot dauber. Using paint provides a multisensory approach and is a great way to introduce pre-writing strokes (horizontal and vertical lines, + and a circle)

Big Kids

• Q-tips are easily bent and can be formed into straight lines and curves and used to build letters. This is a great kinesthetic approach to learning letter formation and letter recognition. Remember, drawing shapes comes before letters, so forming squares, circles and triangles can be great for pre-writing and developing visual motor integration skills
• Taping 3 q-tips together and using them to write in paint, sand, shaving cream, etc is a great way to facilitate developing a tripod grasp

Using q-tips are not just for grooming! They are a great asset to developing fine motor skills for all ages!