Important Fine Motor Developmental Milestones (0 to 12 months)

Fine motor skills include the finger and hand skills such as holding small items using fingers, buttoning, turning pages of a book, cutting with scissors, using computer keyboards, writing, opening boxes and tying shoelaces. To develop fine motor skills, coordination of small muscles are essential. These skills usually involve the synchronization of movements of hands and fingers with the eyes.

Whenever there is delay in milestones of development of fine motor skills, developmental stimulation involving parents should be started with guidance from experts in developmental pediatrics.

The important fine motor milestones in infancy are the following:

3 months – Can follow an object with steady movements of eyes.

4 months – Infant tries to grasp a ring dangling in front.

5 months – Reaches for a cube held within reach.

7 months – Can hold the cube in palm. Can transfer objects from one hand to the other.

10 months – Can pick a pellet using ends of thumb and index finger.

12 months – Starts scribbling on paper with crayon.

It is very important, that every parent should be given awareness regarding fine motor development milestones, so that very early parent mediated interventions can be started in infancy itself whenever there is delay in acquiring the fine motor skills.