Tweezer / Tongs Montessori Child
Parents and educators alike are often extremely eager to assist young children with the development of fine motor control. This is particularly true because of the impact of fine motor control on the development of writing skills. The use of tweezers is an ideal pre-writing exercise to develop strength, control and coordination in the hands and fingers. Yet often tongs or tweezers are too large for very little hands - which is where this fantastic tool comes in.
These tongs provide a useful early-stage transferring activity for toddlers and younger pre-schoolers. Recommended for ages 3+
The tweezers/tongs come in six colour options (please choose your preference from the drop-down menu).
The tongs measure approximately 12cm with a 'span' of only 3cm between the tips when it is open and around 4cm from each of the grip pads. This small span is what makes the tool so ideal for little hands. Their petite size fits perfectly into tiny toddler hands or into the grasp of an older child who would benefit from some remedial support.
The use of tongs for transferring activities can be staggered to offer increasing levels of difficulty. In my own Montessori classroom we utilise these different applications:
- Transferring soft objects (such as pom-poms)
- Transferring larger, hard objects (such as wooden beads)
- Transferring smaller, hard objects
- Transferring objects with a specific control-of-error (such as transferring small bells with the child being encouraged to move them without letting them make a sound!)
- For a particularly difficult challenge (ideal for older, more experienced pre-schoolers or primary schoolers requiring some remedial exercises of finger strength)demonstrate to a child how he or she can use the tongs in one hand to hold a bead steady while using the other hand to push the thread through the bead!
