When do babies develop fine motor skills

Fine Motor Skills for Toddlers and Preschoolers: Tips and Activities

Early childhood development includes acquiring fine and gross motor skills. While both these skills involve movement, they do have differences:

Fine motor skills involve movement of the smaller muscle groups in your child’s hands, fingers, and wrists.
Gross motor skills involve movement of the larger muscle groups, like the arms and legs. It’s these larger muscle groups that allow babies to sit up, turn over, crawl, and walk.

Both types of motor skills enable children to become more independent. Fine motor skills are especially crucial, however, because the ability to use the smaller muscles in the hands allows children to perform self-care tasks without assistance. This includes:

brushing their teeth
eating
writing
getting dressed

Babies and toddlers develop fine and gross motor skills at their own pace. Some children develop some skills earlier than others, and that’s perfectly normal. Children usually begin to acquire these skills as early as 1 or 2 months old and continue to learn additional skills through preschool and early elementary school.

The most important fine motor skills children need to develop include the following:

The palmar arches allow the palms to curl inward. Strengthening these helps coordinate the movement of fingers, which is needed for writing, unbuttoning clothes, and gripping.
Wrist stability develops by early school years. Itallows children to move their fingers with strength and control.
Skilled side of the hand is the use of the thumb, index finger, and other fingers together for precision grasping.
Intrinsic hand muscle development is the ability to perform small movements with the hand, where the tip of the thumb, index finger, and middle finger touch.
Bilateral hand skills permit the coordination of both hands at the same time.
Scissor skills develop by age 4 and teaches hand strength and hand-eye coordination.

Here’s a brief timeline of fine motor milestones for babies and toddlers:

0 to 3 months

places their hands in their mouth
hands become more relaxed

3 to 6 months

holds hands together
moves a toy from one hand to the other
holds and shakes a toy using both hands

6 to 9 months

begins to grasp things by “raking” with the hand
squeezes an item with their hands
touches fingers together
grasps a toy with both hands
uses their index finger to touch things
claps hands

9 to 12 months

feeds themselves finger foods
grabs small objects with thumb and index finger
bangs things together
holds a toy with one hand

12 month to 2 years

builds block tower
scribbles on paper
eats with a spoon
turns one page of a book at a time
holds crayon with fingertips and thumb (pincer grasp)

2 to 3 years

turns a doorknob
washes hands
uses a spoon and fork correctly
zips and unzips clothes
places lids and removes lids from canisters
strings beads on yarn

3 to 4 years

unbuttons and buttons clothes
uses scissors to cut paper
traces shapes on paper

Fine motor skills develop naturally as your child gains the ability to control and coordinate their body. Keep in mind that some children might develop fine motor skills earlier and have better coordination than others.

One baby may learn to shake a rattle at 3 months, whereas a baby of the same age might not shake a rattle until a month later. This is totally normal.

Don’t be alarmed if your child isn’t developing as fast as a child of similar age. Remember, your child’s body is still growing. In a few weeks or months, they may build enough muscle strength in their hands to acquire new fine motor skills.

Incorporating fun activities into your child’s daily routine can help improve their fine motor skills. The ability to learn and practice fine motor skills at an early age can benefit them academically, socially, and personally.

Here are some activities you and your child can do together:

Allow your child to assist with meal preparation, like stirring, mixing, or pouring ingredients.
Put together a puzzle as a family.
Play board games that involve rolling dice.
Finger paint together.
Let your child set the dinner table.
Teach your child how to pour their own drinks.
Have your child roll and flatten clay with their hands, and then use a cookie cutter to make cutouts.
Show your child how to use a hole puncher.
Practice placing rubber bands around a can.
Place objects in a container and have your child remove them with tweezers.

Although fine motor skills develop at different rates, see your child’s pediatrician if they struggle with these skills or gross motor skills. Delays could be a sign of developmental coordination disorder. It affects about 5 to 6 percent of school-aged children.

Signs of a problem with fine motor skills include:

dropping items
unable to tie shoes
difficulty holding a spoon or toothbrush
trouble writing, coloring, or using scissors

Some fine motor skills delays aren’t detected until a child is older. Identifying a delay early can ensure your child receives the help they need to build their skills and help them grow.

Your child’s pediatrician may diagnose a coordination disorder if your child has:

fine motor skills below what’s expected for their age
poor fine motor skills that make it difficult to complete everyday tasks at school and home
developmental delays of motor skills that started at an early age

Your child may need to work one-on-one with an occupational therapist to learn techniques to improve coordination in their smaller muscle groups.

Fine motor skills are essential to living and learning. If your child has difficulty with day-to-day activities or you feel your child struggles with these skills, discuss the possibility of a developmental delay with their doctor.

With an early diagnosis, home activities, and the assistance of an occupational therapist, you can help your child thrive and reach developmental milestones.

Fine motor skills: birth to 2 years

What are fine motor skills?

Generally thought of as the movement and use of hands and upper extremities, fine motor skills include reaching, grasping and manipulating objects with your hands. Fine motor skills also involve vision, specifically visual motor skills, often referred to hand-eye coordination. Visual-motor skills are needed to coordinate hands, legs, and the rest of the body.

The difference between gross and fine motor skills pertains to the muscles being used. Gross motor skills refer to the large muscles and fine motor skills refer to the smaller muscles. Babies and toddlers need a lot of playtime and practice to develop those small muscles needed for fine motor control. Learn more about all developmental milestones by age.

Developmental milestones: Activities for infants and toddlers to build fine motor skills

This is a list of fine motor skills children should demonstrate between the ages of 0-2 years.

0-3 months

Brings hands to mouth
Moves arms
May swing arms at toys
Hands start to open more

3-6 months

Holds small object in hand (without thumb tucked in hand)
Holds hands together
Reaches for toys with both arms
Pushes up on arms when on tummy
Briefly holds a toy like a rattle
Follows objects with eyes in all directions

6-9 months

Shakes and bangs rattles
Brings toys to mouth
Uses a raking grasp
Transfers objects from one hand to the other
Keeps hands open and relaxed most of the time
Starting to have the ability to pick up small foods like Cheerios

9-12 months

Able to release an object voluntarily
Gives toy to a caregiver when asked
Bangs two toys together
Turns pages of a book a few pages at a time
Begins to put objects into a container
Points to objects
Stacks 2 blocks

12-18 months

Claps hands together
Puts objects and toys into containers
Waves goodbye
Uses both hands to play
Can isolate index finger with other fingers closed
Scribbles with a crayon
Beginning to use a spoon and cup

18-24 months

Can build a block tower using 3-4 blocks
Puts rings on a ring stacker
Turns pages of a book one at a time
Begins holding crayons with finger tips and thumb

2 to 5 years

See fine motor skill milestones for children ages 2 to 5

Additional ways to help infants develop fine motor skills

You can help your infant develop MOTOR SKILLS by:

"Tummy Time"… An important concept in motor skills development for children ages 0-2 years is what is known as "prone skills. " Prone refers to lying on your stomach; many therapists call this "tummy time." A young baby needs to spend playtime in "prone." Tummy time helps develop postural control and strength to provide stability for hands and fingers. This core stability helps support the development of fine motor skills. Foundational fine motor skills are developed through gross motor skills such as playing in prone, rolling over, sitting up, and crawling.

A 3-6-month-old learns to push up on their elbows in prone and eventually is able to push up onto their hands. These activities are the beginnings of shoulder stability and arch development in the hands, which are used later on for strength and coordination activities, such as pitching a ball, or precise activities, such as writing with a pencil.

Tummy time also allows for floor time and limits time spent in equipment such as bouncers, infant seats, or swings.

As the development of vision and the sense of touch is important to the development of motor skills, children need to be able to see and feel what is in their hands in order to interact with or manipulate objects.

Learn more about how tummy time can help your baby

Help your infant develop VISUAL SKILLS by:

Getting close... Young babies like to look at faces. A parent's face is very expressive and possesses contrast which encourages babies to focus and use their visual skills. Position your face about 12" from your baby's face. Sing, talk and make silly faces!
Choosing color... As babies get to be 3-6 months old they begin to enjoy objects with increasing color. Three-month-olds often like "cool colors"- lemon yellow, sky blue and lime green. Six-month-olds are getting ready for brighter colors - hot pink, red and orange.
Exposing your baby to different and enriching visual environments... If you usually have an infant seat in the den, try other rooms so your baby can have different views. If you often carry your baby in a cradle hold through the house, alternate and carry your baby at your shoulder level so he/she can view the world with an upright head posture.

Help your infant develop SENSORY SKILLS by:

Incorporate multiple senses…When interacting with your baby remember all the senses: touch (tactile), movement (vestibular), body awareness (proprioceptive), sight, smell, hearing, and taste. Play mats with different textures and touch and feel books offer different tactile experiences. Rocking, swaying, and gentle bouncing provide varied movement experiences. As mentioned earlier using toys with different colors and playing in different environments offers different visual experiences. Using lightly scented lotions or letting you baby smell garden herbs can stimulate sense of smell. Listening to music and playing with instruments are good ways to provide auditory input. Once your baby is eating a variety of solid foods, at around five to six months of age, experimenting with a variety of tastes, textures, and colors is a great way to broaden her culinary (and sensory) horizons.
Positioning... Our senses of vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell are all developing in a young infant. We also have a "positional sense"; this helps us to define if our body is moving, and where we are in space (sitting up or lying on our stomach). This positional sense is why babies like to be rocked. To help them have an enriched environment, alternate rocking with swaying, try different rocking chairs, and change the baby's position - swaddled in a blanket, upright on your shoulder, or lying on their stomach across your lap. Go for walks with your baby in a baby-wearing carrier or backpack for stimulation.
Massaging... For development of touch sense or tactile awareness, provide your infant with massage to arms, legs and trunk. You can use baby lotion or oils if you like. Many YMCAs and other organizations offer classes for infant massage. This activity is great for bonding time with your child.

How to improve your child’s fine motor skills

If your child is regularly missing development milestones, occupational therapy addresses challenges related to cognitive, daily living, motor, sensory processing, social and visual/perceptual skill development.

Occupational therapists at CHoR can provide a comprehensive examination of your child’s strength, balance, coordination and fine motor skills in order to determine barriers to safe body movement. We provide therapeutic activities that are engaging and specific to a child’s age, cognitive status, ability level and interests. We strive to help a child and his or her family succeed through developing strategies unique to a child’s specific needs and abilities.

To make an appointment with a pediatric therapist, call one of these locations:

Bon Air Therapy Center 804-323-9060
Brook Road Campus 804-228-5818
Fredericksburg Therapy Center 540-891-4485
Glen Allen Therapy Center 804-273-6656
Petersburg Therapy Center 804-733-7233
Stafford Therapy Center 540- 659-7337

Information provided by Sallie Tidman, OT/L, Director of Therapy Services, and occupational therapist's Katie Bobbit, Megan Stratton, and Melanie Koch

How to develop fine motor skills in a child

Today we will look at what fine motor skills are, its features, ways of development using games and toys as examples, as well as the optimal age to start its development. Why is this issue getting so much attention? Let's figure it out together.

Article content:

What is fine motor skills
Features of the development of fine motor skills
Games and exercises aimed at developing fine motor skills
Lessons for the development of fine motor skills in children
Fine motor toys
At what age should you develop fine motor skills
Terminals

What is fine motor skills

Fine motor skills are the sequence and precision of movements required to perform various actions with small objects using the hands, fingers and toes.

Fine motor skills can be traced in children from an early age, when they are just learning to hold a toy. First comes the development of the hand, finger movements, then the formation of speech is formed. The formation of speech through the development of fine motor skills occurs due to the influence of nerve endings on the brain regions responsible for motor skills and speech, which are located next to each other.

In addition to the main function - the development of speech - fine motor skills affect the development of mental processes: thinking, memory, imagination, ability to orientate in space.

Features of the development of fine motor skills

The ability to master fine motor skills in children does not develop by itself, that is, it does not have a hereditary factor. Of great importance in this matter are adults who, by their example, involve the child in various activities, develop him systematically and purposefully. This hypothesis was first put forward by the Russian scientist Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov. Subsequently, other scientists, doctors, teachers and specialists in various fields began to focus on this opinion as a key one.

Why is such attention paid to the development of fine motor skills? For children, it means the formation of basic skills and abilities.

The speech of the child is formed, which contributes to a comfortable stay in the children's team.
Skills of various movements are developed. The child can play with toys on his own without distracting an adult.
Self-care skills are strengthened. The child acquires the ability to independently hold a spoon, tie shoelaces, fasten buttons and other items on clothes.
Social bonds are established with peers and adults through the ability to communicate clearly and maintain dialogue.
Readiness to study at school is formed in the aggregate of all the above reasons.

Games and exercises aimed at developing fine motor skills

The main activity of preschool children is play. We have selected for you a variety of games and exercises, among which you are sure to find something that suits you and your child.

Folding toys. We put a transparent container in front of the child and put small toys separately. We suggest putting the toys in the container with your right hand. Then we pour them back, and ask you to repeat the same steps with your left hand.
Games with cereals. In one container, mix two types of cereals, for example, rice and buckwheat. It is necessary that the child spread these cereals into different containers. You can complicate the game by adding other small items to the cereal mixture, such as beads, buttons, pebbles.
Paper tearing exercise. First, we draw arbitrary lines on a sheet of paper. We offer the child to tear the paper with his hands exactly along the drawn lines. You can complicate the task by depicting geometric shapes.
Page turning exercise. As the child grows older, instead of tearing a sheet of paper, you can offer to flip through the pages of your favorite book. This exercise also encourages the child's early interest in reading literature.
Smooth out wrinkled paper. We put a crumpled sheet of paper in front of the child and offer to smooth it so that not a single bent corner remains. You can complicate the exercise by offering to perform it with one hand, while holding the sheet with your thumb.
Dice games. We give the task to collect various figures from cubes: a tower, a house, a car, etc. Pyramid rings are also suitable for these games. Tasks become more difficult as the child masters the construction of simple figures.
Lacing games. Available in various options. It can also be an unnecessary shoe that can be given to the child to lace up and unlace. It can also be a card in which holes for laces are made. In any case, the actions with these items are the same and have one goal - to teach the child to cope with the laces on their own, since this skill will be useful to him in the future.
Exercises with counting sticks. Please lay out geometric shapes on the table. First, the child performs tasks according to the model, and then independently according to verbal instructions. An additional plus of this exercise is the formation of elementary mathematical representations.
Games with covers. Here you can offer various containers and vessels with lids that the child will independently twist and unscrew. And if you tell your child that you can’t cope without him, you will give a motive to become your main assistant.
Finger painting in the sand. Invite the child to draw with all fingers alternately geometric shapes or any other pattern that he wishes. Interaction with sand also has a positive effect on the central nervous system.

Lessons for the development of fine motor skills in children

In addition to games for the development of fine motor skills, you should engage in a variety of activities that children will undoubtedly like:

modeling from plasticine, clay or dough;
drawing or coloring with paints, pencils, crayons;
construction from kits, paper, cubes;
crafts made of paper, natural or waste materials;
stringing beads, buttons on a string;
mosaic picking;
ball games;
peeling fruits, e. g. tangerines;
work with special manuals-copybooks.

Fine motor toys

What could be better for a child than a new toy? Only a toy that contributes to its comprehensive development.

Massage embossed foot mats. Ideal to use after waking up to tone the body. You can purchase a puzzle mat that he can assemble and disassemble on his own. If you want to focus on the development of cognitive skills, you can purchase a rug with numbers or letters.
Magnets. Place the magnets on the refrigerator or a special magnetic board. The child will definitely be interested in them, and will independently move them on the surface. Depending on the goal pursued, you can purchase magnets of various shapes, for example, in the form of numbers.
Kinetic sand. Tactilely pleasant not only for children, but also for adults. Such sand does not get your hands dirty, so it will become a favorite toy for children and an assistant for adults.
Easel for drawing. There are options for easels on which you can draw on both sides: on the one hand - with special crayons, and on the other - with paints.
Massage balls. Perfect for finger games. Thanks to the spikes, they actively affect the areas of the palms and fingers.
Constructors. You can choose a set from any manufacturer. You should focus on safety for the child, age and gender. In addition to the development of fine motor skills, it stimulates the development of modeling and design skills.
Finger Theatre. It combines the possibilities of the comprehensive development of the child. In addition, it improves the expressiveness of speech, memory, imagination, acting skills. This option should definitely be used if you notice that one hand is more developed than the other.
Busyboard. Recently a popular manual for the development of fine motor skills. It is a wooden structure, on which various objects are attached on both sides. These can be laces, caps, locks, switches, gears, etc. Such a toy will help parents, as the baby can play it independently and safely.

At what age should one develop fine motor skills?

It is important to pay attention to the motor skills of the hands for at least a few minutes every day.

For children from nine months of age, pick up large items such as beads or pyramid rings.
At the age of 1 year, you can organize games with natural materials: sand, clay, cones, pebbles, etc.
After 2 years, the baby will be happy to do finger exercises with an adult. Saying various nursery rhymes along with hand movements will help to teach hand and tongue coordination. And also better remembered by the child himself.
After 3 years, paper exercises should be used. Usually, by these years, the baby has mastered the skill of working with scissors, so it becomes possible to model applications.
And from the age of 4-6, origami is mastered as one of the most difficult types of paper games.

At whatever age you are engaged in the development of fine motor skills in children, it is necessary to organize this activity so that it brings not only benefit, but also pleasure to the child.

Conclusions

In the age of technological progress and the early use of phones, tablets and computers by children, other aspects of child development are regressing. And, first of all, speech suffers. The relationship between fine motor skills and speech, as well as the development of mental processes, has already been established.

Systematic work on the development of fine motor skills is necessary throughout the preschool period, since by the age of seven the brain areas responsible for its development have already been formed. A child, going to school, should be prepared for new loads, in particular, for mastering writing skills, and not learning how to hold a pen or pencil correctly. Lack of basic skills can lead to unstable self-esteem, inability to build social connections, and poor academic performance.

The network of children's development centers "Baby Club" will be happy to help in the development of fine motor skills of your child. A developing object-spatial environment, highly qualified specialists who love their work with all their hearts, and cozy groups will not leave anyone indifferent.

General development classes or specialized programs - the choice is yours. Contact us if your goal is to raise a developed, open, free, inquisitive little man.

Development of fine motor skills in children - games for a child at any age

Young parents who study the criteria for the development of a healthy child, recognized as the norm for a particular age, invariably face the question of how to help their child develop fine motor skills in a fun, playful way. Along with speech and motor skills, fine motor skills serve as a “bridge” connecting the child first with the surrounding microcosm, then with society.

What is fine motor skills and why is it important to develop them?

We are talking about the precise coordinated activity of the fingers and the entire child's hand, controlled by the nervous system, brain, organs of vision. In other words, it is the skill of manipulating small objects with only the small muscles of the limbs.
From the first days of a baby's life, he will have to develop not only large motor skills - learn to walk, jump, turn, but also sensory - discover tactility, vision, taste, hearing. At the same time, the baby masters fine motor skills, getting acquainted with the surrounding objects through the fingertips.
The first skills are developed along the following chain:

through numerous nerve endings located at the fingertips, information about objects enters the child's brain in the form of impulses;
the received information is supported by visual, auditory, olfactory signals;
the collected signals are transformed in the baby's mind into subject knowledge or representation.

Following the improvement of fine motor skills, the child's ability to read, draw, write, and think logically develops.

By taking the lead in consistent continuous teaching of the baby to work with his hands, parents stimulate both his first steps towards self-service, and memory, adequate perception of the world around him, the ability to pay attention and concentration, provoke curiosity and the desire to systematize knowledge.

The sequence of development of motor skills

From the first days of life, the baby seeks to entertain himself with the dexterity of his fingers: he examines them, squeezes and unclenches, grabs a toy, an object he likes. At the age of 3, the “beacon” of growing up motor skills becomes the ability to handle a pencil, at 6 - the ability to draw letters.
Fine motor skills, in other words, the development of children's fingers, should not be left to chance. Sometimes parents believe that it is enough to surround the child with small toys that he will master on his own, arbitrarily training the muscles of the hand. However, experienced teachers and psychologists advise purchasing specialized educational toys that not only amaze with their colorfulness and abundance of sounds, but also develop dexterity of fingers and hands, require repetition of the movements necessary for communication and learning.

Early preschool age is the stage when the child's learning range is formed. The following features testify to the weak development of fine motor skills in preschool children:

inability to accept the pace of presentation of the material in the senior group in kindergarten;

rejection of new material;

difficulty in learning to read;

inability to draw straight lines, to reproduce the numbers and letters shown;

Difficulties in creating a composite color drawing.

Children with insufficiently developed fine motor skills begin to speak later than their peers: this is the first warning signal indicating the need for play programs using specialized toys and games that develop coordination and small limb muscles.

Methods and games for intensive limb development

Ways to develop fine motor skills differ according to the age of toddlers and preschool children.
Axiom - children of prudent parents perform exercises that train thin muscles from birth. These are all kinds of games with an emphasis on tactility, as well as:

home massage of the hands and fingers;
games with improvised materials that are easy to assemble at home: large beads, voluminous buttons, glass and natural stones;
performing finger gymnastics, including playing with finger puppets;
pencil hatching;
plasticine and dough modeling.

It's easy to get a 3 year old kid interested in the constructor with large elements, large puzzles, finger paints, coloring books, creating appliqués using safety scissors.
Today, there are entire play complexes for sale, designed for alternating developmental activities, first of all - home sandboxes with lighting, sets of colored sand and a mobile worktop-cover for drawing and collecting compositions from the designer.
The cost of such multifunctional sandboxes is affordable, the design is focused on decorating a children's room, and the safety of playing with sand, coupled with ease of cleaning, does not cause any complaints from parents.

One-year-old children can buy such devices, provided that their parents actively participate in a fuss with colored sand, which, however, moms and dads really like, classes with colored sand cause positive emotions and allow you to set the child in a calm way.
However, before purchasing construction sets, puzzles, a home sandbox, you should prepare your child's hands to get acquainted with game objects.

Developing fine motor skills of children's hands using improvised means

Before a child gets finger paints and kinetic sand in his arsenal, the tactility of the hands should be trained with special massage exercises.
The algorithm for massaging the baby's hands and fingers is simple, short, parents can do it at any time. It is only important to monitor the reaction of the baby: he should like the tactile effect. If the child is capricious, tried to remove the handles, it is better to interrupt the massage.

The complex of gymnastics for the baby's hands consists of the simplest exercises:

Gently and slowly stretch the baby's fingers;
stroke each finger in turn;
make circular movements with each finger individually in one direction, then in the other;
massage the palm, then the back;
tap with your own finger on the baby's palm, press on it, bend and unbend the children's fingers.

Exercises are offered to the baby not immediately, but gradually, with the addition of a new exercise in the listed sequence with an interval of a month.
Despite the appearance in children's stores of all kinds of massagers for games, you can get by with home remedies for developing finger tactility: uneven soft balls, walnuts, chestnuts and acorns, bags of cereals of various sizes. It is good if there are several bags and they are made of different textile textures - smooth, with a villus.

When the fingers get stronger for independent capture and movement of objects, we introduce him to the variety of activities with objects. Nuts, acorns, spools of thread can be rolled not only on the table, but also between the palms, shifted from the fingertips to the elbow, along the back of the hand.
The baby's tactile pleasure from such actions is limitless, especially when he is not yet active in crawling and walking, therefore he is forced to find new entertainment in a limited space.

Smart shopping: what to buy for your baby to develop fine motor skills

Today, toy stores and educational games compete in an abundance of assortment. Psychologists and doctors recommend purchasing age toys designed both for diversifying the baby's leisure time and for training the small muscles of the limbs.

First of all we recommend:

for children aged 1-2 years: finger games and paints, soft toys for felting, modeling dough, sorters and pyramids, application puzzles made of flexible rubber compounds;
2-3 years: bricks, plasticine, Lego from large elements, prefabricated kits for creating compositions from safe elements connected by lacing or assembled into a frame-frame, sets for playing with water; cars and dolls - voluminous, with parts that can be screwed on, removed or unfastened;
4-5 years: colored pencils, ready-made sets for appliqués and origami, sandbox for playing with kinetic sand;
6-7 years old: small mosaic, construction sets with a lot of miniature details.

Boxes with tight-fitting plastic lids can become a kind of additional “simulators”.

As a rule, cardboard packages of designers, mosaics, puzzles, materials for creativity quickly become unusable. By offering your child lunch boxes and even food buckets as storage containers, you will put him in front of the need to regularly “unfasten” the tight lid to get the game, and thereby develop his fingers.

Home sandbox for kinetic sand - the leader of parental sympathy

The best educational games for children are universal. This means a multi-vector orientation of the game material, contact with which causes positive tactile and visual emotions, provides an opportunity to build the plot of the game, and provokes the imagination. Also important is the involvement of parents in the game, who do not serve their duty playing with the baby, but get deep meditative pleasure, the same as from knitting or fishing.
An example of such a game material is kinetic sand. The Swiss development is presented in stores as original kits, as well as Russian counterparts. Kinetic sand is made of quartz sand and the smallest silicone and is identical in properties to sand from a yard sandbox, with the difference that you can play with it at home, without the risk of littering and getting dirty, with the ability to vary games.

A home sandbox for playing with this material serves simultaneously as a desk with a slate top, a mobile desk with drawers for storing toys and accessories, and a lighted sandbox itself.
The cost of the sandbox varies depending on its additional functionality. Sand sets are presented in different volumes and palettes.

Fluffy, loose sand is pleasant to the touch. There are many options for playing with sand: