Both typical preschoolers and those with disabilities benefit from opportunities to improve their fine motor skills. Children can stack or build with blocks, string beads or noodles onto shoelaces or complete puzzles with knobbed pieces. These activities also build cognitive skills like matching, and help to develop hand-eye coordination. Some everyday fine motor activities that preschoolers can practice include tying shoes or fastening Velcro, buttoning a shirt and zipping up a backpack or jacket.
Many activities in preschool focus on building language skills. Children with disabilities can use sign language or picture cards to ask for a desired snack, point to the color of crayon that they want or tap a classmate on the shoulder and ask to play. All of these activities build language skills in a real-life context. Reading stories aloud and singing songs benefits children with and without disabilities by getting them used to the sounds of language and talking about different elements of a story.
Preschool is a social adventure for children with and without disabilities. It is where children learn about sharing and being considerate of their fellow classmates. Children with disabilities can practice taking turns with a particularly patient friend or work together with their peers to build a tower or complete a project. They can help to divide up the day's snack so that everyone gets a share. They also learn to sit and participate with the entire class during circle time or other whole-group activities.
Children with disabilities can participate in art activities alongside their non-disabled friends. Finger-painting is a fun activity for children and an adult can help a child with movement issues to spread paint around or to make a hand print. Children who do not like get messy may enjoy using dot markers or crayons instead of painting. Children can decorate a page with stickers or foam shapes since peeling and sticking the shapes is also an excellent fine motor activity.