Exploring Hydraulic Machinery Repairs and Maintenance

Some children have a hard time gripping small items because they do not have great dexterity in their hands. Nuts and bolts that you can find at any hardware store can often be a great manipulative for your child to use to be able to improve their dexterity at home. The following guide walks you through a few different ways to use nuts and bolts to help your child improve their dexterity.

Choose Many Different Sizes

Nuts and bolts are available in many different sizes. Find five to ten sets of larger nuts and bolts in varying sizes and place them in one bin together. Your child will have to sort and match the nuts and bolts until all are paired together properly.

Attach the Bolts to a Board

Drill holes into a short piece of 2x4 and screw a few different sized bolts through the holes of the board. Give your child the matching nuts to the bolts and a small set of plyers for them to use to tighten the bolts. Plyers are available at most home improvement stores in many different sizes. This activity improves their hand eye coordination and helps them to be able to improve their dexterity at the same time.

Attach the Nuts to a Board

Drill holes into another small piece of 2x4 and use permanent adhesive to attach the nuts to the board over the holes. Purchase a small torque wrench and allow your child to place the bolts into the nuts and tighten them with the wrench. This makes the game more fun and exciting for your little one.

Color Code the Nuts and Bolts   

Use nail polish to paint the top of the bolts and the edges of the nuts. Place all of the items into one bin and allow your child to sort and match the identical colors together. This helps them to learn their colors while they are improving their dexterity.

As nuts and bolts can be choking hazards, you want to be sure that you choose the larger sized nuts and bolts for smaller children to use. Be sure that you are always with your child when they are playing with the nuts and bolts so you can monitor them to ensure that they are using them as safely as possible at all times. All of these projects take up very little room in your home and can greatly improve your child's ability to grasp small objects.