Sensory fine motor skills – BrainArt

Sensory art experience for toddler and how it helps

brainartadmin — Tue, 22 Mar 2022 17:26:45 +0000

Previous article we spoke about why sensory art is important for toddlers ? Things to avoid and appropriate sensory art material and experiences for Toddlers.
Messy art is fun and provides delightful way of learning about the world and its physical properties. If not all, but most of children like to get their hands into paint and other slimy / gooey material that “tickle there sense”. This program lets child to discover the emotional pleasure of sensory. What more ? Development of cognitive, social-emotional and multi-sensory skills.

What exactly is the messy art / sensory art ? – Is it simple finger printing ? or sand printing ? It’s lot more actually. Friendly description is that involve paint and other fluid materials that changes the ease as you manipulate them. These fluid experiences provide children with exiting physical contacts and motivation to explore. Fluid nature paints provide dynamic and rapid changing exploration of colors, shapes and texture.

It is important to remember that toddler’s art is about the process and exploration and not the end result of the artwork.

One of the best way to promote early childhood learning through art. Hands-on and self-directed learning is given special importance in pre-schools and kindergarten. Art teaches critical thinking, self-expression, problem solving, creativity and self-esteem.

Sensory Art How to start ?

Creating a productive time for your child of any age to engage the with sensory art / play is domineering for their long-time learning. It is very simple by taking simple object that you already have in house. You can create many fun activities for your child.

For example, take a Spaghetti noodles & pipe cleaner or juice straw and challenge your child to put noodles in hole. This activity experience will help them to develop fine motor and problem solving skills, when they break the spaghetti noodles.

Here are the few activities that are on our list for toddlers :

Growth Mindset & Fixed Mindset

brainartadmin — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 10:22:10 +0000

Carol Dweck’s work in the psychology of successful area of Growth Mindset. The evidence from her research clearly points out that the single most important trait that all successful people have in common is their specific mindset. Dweck’s excellent book: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success presents Growth And Fixed Mindset – two beliefs systems about human abilities, intelligence, talent.

What is Fixed Mindset ?

Some believe their success is based on innate ability and intelligence; they believe that these quantums are innate and therefore fixed . Such people are said to have a “fixed” theory of intelligence or a fixed mindset.

What is Growth Mindset ?

According to psychologist Carol Dweck, those with a fixed mindset believe that your intelligence is natural and cannot be improved. Those with a growth mindset believe your intelligence can be stretched & grown. Growth Mindset is a simple idea discovered by Dweck in her decades of research in achievement and success. According to her We should not discourage if we initially fail at task, for failure should only make us keep trying and with determination and perseverance we are sure to succeed.

Therefore, success is not determined by one’s I.Q or talent rather it is determined by one’s GRIT or the ability one has to never give up!

5 ways to shift kids Mindset

Collaborate
Don’t be afraid to tell kids “that’s too easy”. Collaborate with them to find work that is suitably challenging.
Practice
Give effusive praise for kids’ effort–not for their talent. Students get plenty of praise for their talent from their classmates and their other teachers. Show them that you appreciate the work they put in to their art.
Encourage
Remind kids that success takes work. If students want to learn to throw on the wheel, they need to be practicing every day. If they want to draw from observation, they need to get out the drawing pencils and paper on a regular basis.
Embrace Challenges
Teach kids to embrace criticism. Do critiques–both formal and informal–and encourage your kids to use that feedback and advice to get better.
Embrace
Criticism Embrace the challenges, and embrace the mistakes. That’s how we learn. That’s how we advance.

Don’t neglect the growth mindset for yourself either. You should embrace the challenges and embrace the mistakes right along with your students. A growth mindset will help you as a teacher, and more importantly, it will help students be successful.

We at BrainArt art classes we help students to develop a growth mindset by teaching them about the amazing characteristics of our elastic brain which supports the fact that our brain muscles are automatically stretched every time we responds to a challenge and thus growth takes place when we come up with a solution. In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.

How art helps developing fine motor skills in children

brainartadmin — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 09:05:35 +0000

Using scissors to cut the papers in some shape or tearing paper is a amazing fine motor activity for kids. These activities require strength and endurance of the small muscles in the hand. These intrinsic muscles are important in so many fine motor skills.

What is Fine Motor Skills ?

The opening and closing motion of cutting with scissors or tearing papers in numerous shapes helps kids develop the little muscles in their hands otherwise referred to as fine motor skills. These muscles are crucial for holding a pencil or crayons and gripping and manipulating objects. When paper is torn or cut with scissors, the hands assume a great tripod grasp which is effective and a mature grasp for writing and colouring. The non-dominant hand is assisting in the tearing and encourages appropriate assistance for tasks like holding the paper while writing, and managing paper while cutting with scissors.

Little hands need to develop dexterity and strength. We, as parents or caregivers, can help this process by encouraging children to play, explore and interact with a variety of items. Toys, clothing fasteners, safe scissors and play dough are all tactile examples of practices that facilitate fine motor development.

These Art activities actively engage toddler’s creativity & imagination through colors, shapes and patterns.

What abilities does these activities develop?

What abilities does these activities develop?
Use the hands together in a leading and helping way. The leading hand holds the scissors & makes cutting movements, the helping hand holds & manoeuvres the paper.
Isolate or combine movements of the thumb, index and middle fingers, and to keep these fingers moving separately from the ring and little fingers.
Coordinate arm, hand and eye movements towards an end goal
Keep the joints in the wrist, elbow and shoulder stable, so that the scissors can be well controlled. Balance, seating and joint stability all contribute to this. Joint stability can be related to strength