Mastering new skills - Pincer Grip

The pincer grip is an early childhood milestone which opens up a world of opportinuty for your little one. The pincer grip will enable your child to feed himself, move puzzle pieces, turn pages of a book and later on will enable your child to write, use scissors, eat using a fork or spoon, thread beads, dress themselves and tie their own shoe laces.

A true pincer grip is when a child uses their index finger and thumb, however babies will earlier be able to grab items and toys with their fist.

My little girl is now 16 months old but from around 8 months old she was interested in completing this peg puzzle which is great for practising these skills. initially she held the pieces using her thumb and four fingers but later progressed to the pincer grip of just her thumb and index finger. She often would take all of the pieces out. It has only been recently she has be interested and able to return the pieces to the board.

Tips to help your baby develop their skills:

1. Offer finger food as a meal or snack - encouraging them to practice picking up food in a range of different sizes.

2. Set up crafts and encourage your child to draw and paint. Holding objects will again strengthen their hands and fingers and encourage the pincer.

3. Have a few toys which aid this development, peg puzzles are great for this, but also blocks and age appropriate play sets whereby babies can pick up figures and put them in trailers, houses etc and taken them out again.  

Our range of toys suitable for babies are available here. My favourites for the pincer grip are peg puzzles which can be found here. Along with this tractor and trailer playset - great for babies to empty and refill.