Playing Games with Kids to Build Visual and Motor Skills

Families are spending more time at home with limited access to new toys and activities. During this time, it is important to keep kids learning and working on their play and fine motor skills.

There are many ways to use the supplies and toys you have in new ways to encourage the development of imagination, turn taking, finger control and strength, problem solving and handwriting. Doing meaningful, new activities can be helpful for the whole family.

Try to complete just 1-2 new activities per day (or week) and build a routine. Adjust the suggestions for your child’s developmental level, interests and your family’s priorities.

Deck of Cards

• Use a deck of cards to play childhood favorites like Go Fish, War, Solitaire, Hearts, or Old Maid.
• Make your own deck of cards using index cards, the inside of cereal or pop tart boxes once empty. Be sure to monitor children when they are using scissors.
• For older children, use sight words or spelling words from school to make or use as flashcards or deck of cards to play Memory or Go Fish. 
• For younger children, use shapes or color cards to play games or simply use for sorting or matching to improve color or shape recognition.

Board Games

• Get old board games out of your closet in order to focus on fine motor, direction following, turn taking, and visual skills.
• Build puzzles together to work on visual and spatial skills (right/left, up/down, top/bottom). Place stickers, pictures, or spelling words on the backside of old puzzle pieces to add new interest to a familiar puzzle.
• Make board games using paper, poster board or the back side of wrapping paper to play Tic-Tac-Toe. Make your own chess or checkers board, or draw a “race track” to play with  toy cars. Older kiddos can make up their own games on the paper and write down rules on note cards or scrap paper. 
• Modify the games you have to encourage new skills. For example, when playing Candy Land make different rules for every color the child lands on (for example: purple - write your name, orange - do jumping jacks, blue - hold a yoga pose, green - do a math problem, yellow - say something nice about the person sitting next to you).
• Make your own BINGO board using your child’s sight or spelling words from class.