While creating crafts might seem like a simple, fun task for kids to engage in, a variety of different skills are being challenged throughout the process!
Prewriting Skills:
While crafting the child might be coloring with crayons, stringing beads, or pinching small items to glue onto a surface. All of these fine motor movements help contribute to the development of appropriate pencil grasp so they are able to write at an age-appropriate level later on in life.
Bilateral Coordination:
The use of both hands simultaneously is a necessary prerequisite skill in a wide variety of things we do: buttoning a shirt, doing the dishes, playing board games, etc. While crafting, a child could be working on their bilateral coordination when cutting out shapes; they would be using one hand to stabilize and move the paper while the other hand is cutting. Another instance is evident when folding paper for a paper snowflake or a similar craft. The child must use both hands simultaneously to line up the corners of the paper and stabilize while creasing the paper.
Encourage Creativity and Explore Interests
The core of occupational therapy comes back to enabling our clients to be able to engage in their meaningful occupations every day. For children, allowing them to explore their creative mind and create art with a variety of different mediums helps them discover their interests. Helping children find their likes and dislikes through crafts allows them to learn about themselves and future interests and hobbies.
Resources:
6 Developmental Benefits of Crafting and Beading for Children. https://kidsactivitiesblog.com/115504/6-developmental-benefits-crafting-beading-children/
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