When a parent comes to us and says “my child struggles with writing, the fingers tire quickly, the letters come out crooked — what can we do about the hand?”, we often answer with something that, at first glance, sounds completely off-topic: “let’s work with the whole body”. Because the truth is that a hand which cannot hold a pen calmly for fifteen minutes is rarely simply a “weak hand”. It is a hand that has nothing to lean on — because the child’s arm, shoulder, trunk and hips have not yet built a stable foundation underneath it.
This is the third part of our series on hand skill development in preschool-aged children. In part one we wrote about working with real tools under the guidance of Mr Handyman. In part two — about Kuchcikowo, where our Krasnoludki knead, cut and measure. Today we step back even further — to what happens before the child even picks up a knife, a pen or a pair of scissors. To running, climbing, jumping, crawling. To gross motor skills.
What gross motor skills are, and why they come first
Gross motor skills are all those movements that engage large muscle groups — whole legs, whole arms, the back, the abdomen, the hips. Running. Jumping. Climbing. Crawling. Riding a bicycle. Kicking a ball. Rolling on the grass. Swinging. Everything that, to the child, is simply play — and which, to the child’s brain and body, is daily, essential training.
Fine motor skills are all the precise movements — the fingers, the hands, the small wrist muscles. Cutting, drawing, snipping, fastening buttons, building with blocks, writing, tying shoes.
In a culture where most adult life is spent at a keyboard, it’s easy to forget that these two abilities are not independent. What is more — in the child’s brain and body, gross motor skills come first, and fine motor skills only grow out of them. This is one of the most important rules of developmental neurology: proximal stability enables distal mobility. In plain language — if the centre of the child’s body (trunk, hips, shoulders) is unstable, the periphery (the hands, the fingers) cannot work precisely, because there is nothing for it to lean on.
Imagine a camera tripod. The camera at the top can have the best lens and the most precise mechanism — but if the tripod is shaky, every photo will turn out blurred. The child’s brain works similarly. First it has to teach the body to stand stably, sit upright, control the position of the head and shoulders. Only then does the hand have a base from which it can perform precise movements.
Why a strong trunk matters for writing
A first-grader who sits at a desk for forty-five minutes with a pen in their hand uses far more muscles than just the fingers. The trunk has to keep them upright. The back and abdominal muscles must continuously make small adjustments to control posture. The shoulder must be positioned so the arm can rest comfortably on the desk. The elbow must sit at a comfortable angle. The wrist must stay relaxed.
If any of these elements is not working — the child quickly tires. They start to slouch, prop up their head with their hand, fidget, lie on the desk. What a parent often sees as “can’t focus” is frequently a simple message from the body: “I can no longer hold this position, I’m looking for support I can rest on”. A child who has not run enough at the playground, has not climbed enough on the bars, has not dug enough in the sand — has not built that endurance.
The same is true for writing on the line. For the letter “a” to be round, the shoulder needs to be well anchored — because that’s where the movement of the arm begins, the arm steers the forearm, the forearm the wrist, the wrist the fingers. It is a whole cascade. A shoulder that cannot stay stable transmits its tremor all the way down to the fingers. And then the letter comes out crooked — not because the child “doesn’t know how”, but because in a very real sense they have nothing to write from.
What gross motor skills actually do for the hand
Let’s break this down into a few concrete mechanisms that educators and therapists observe every day.
Shoulder stabilization. When a child climbs on bars, ladders, climbing walls — the whole body weight loads the shoulders. The muscles around the shoulder joint work under tension, feel the load, learn to keep the arm in a precise position. After dozens, hundreds of such repetitions the shoulder becomes a stable platform from which the hand can later work in focus. A child who climbs a lot usually writes more calmly and tires less.
Grip strength. Hanging on a bar, pull-ups, sliding down a rope, catching a ball, throwing pebbles into water — all of these activities train grip strength. The same strength that later holds a pen across a whole page. A child whose hands are weak tires after five minutes of writing even if the “fine motor” looks well developed — because the raw strength is missing, and that strength can only be built through loading.
Bilateral coordination. Riding a bicycle, swimming, climbing, dancing, playing ball — all these are exercises in which the left and right sides of the body do something at the same time, but differently. The brain learns to synchronize both hemispheres, coordinate two sides of the body. This is exactly the same skill the child will later need to hold a piece of paper with one hand and write with the other — without it, neither writing, nor using scissors, nor fastening buttons goes smoothly.
Body awareness (proprioception). When the child jumps, crawls, rolls, spins, runs over uneven ground — the brain is constantly gathering information: where am I in space, how are my arms and legs arranged, in which direction am I tilting. This awareness is the foundation on which finger precision can later be built. A child who “doesn’t feel” where their hand is cannot draw a line — because to draw a line, you first need to know where the pencil is in relation to your own body.
Hand–eye coordination. Catching a ball, kicking a ball, throwing at a target, dodging obstacles on a bicycle, jumping over a puddle, balancing on a curb — in each of these activities the eye sees something, the brain analyses, the body reacts. The longer the child trains this loop, the better it works. And it is exactly the same loop that is used in drawing (“I see the line — I guide the pencil”), in writing (“I see the letter — I copy it”), and in reading (“the eyes follow the line, the brain assembles the symbols”).
That’s why there’s so much running going on at our place
In our preschool, movement is not “a break between educational activities”. Movement is an educational activity. Every day, regardless of weather, every group goes out to the playground — because we know that a child’s brain that has not had a chance to run in the morning will not be able to focus on puzzles, books or longer table activities in the afternoon.
We have deliberately designed our movement room. There are bars, a climbing wall, a balance beam, an obstacle course, rolling materials, soft sensory blocks. There are also general physical education classes, eurhythmics, dance and — in the warmer months — additional outings to nearby playgrounds. Movement is woven into the entire day: between meals, between activities, within selected programme elements (math in the rhythm of music, French classes with movement elements, movement play in nursery groups).
Even our purely educational classes are designed to include movement. Counting sometimes happens with a jump rope. Letters are formed by bodies on the carpet. Geography is learned by walking on a map. This is not a “special-occasion attraction” — it is a deliberate decision rooted in developmental neurology. The child’s brain learns best when the body is engaged.
Parents who bring their children to us after spending time in more “static” preschools often say the same thing after a few weeks: “in the evening my son is tired — but happy. And he finally falls asleep without a fight”. Because a child who has spent six hours using their body the way the body is meant to be used has full satisfaction with the day in the evening. And wakes up in the morning ready for the next one.
What a parent can do at home — every day
— Go outside every day. Even in the rain, even in the winter. Twenty minutes of vigorous movement in fresh air gives the child more than two hours of table activities. Playground, forest, courtyard, the path to the shop — anything that requires walking, running, climbing.
— Let the child climb. Bars, high benches, low walls, trees, anything that’s safe. A child who climbs a lot has stable shoulders and a strong hand. The parent’s fear of falling is natural — but it has to be outweighed by the awareness that without climbing, the hand cannot be built.
— Play with a ball. Catch, pass, throw at a target. A ball is one of the best hand–eye coordination workouts that exists. There is no need to teach the child any specific sport — fifteen minutes of plain throwing and catching a day is enough.
— Bring movement-based sensory play home. Jumping into a circle, somersaulting on a mattress, crawling under the table, balancing on a line drawn in chalk — all these “childish” games are full-value brain exercises. A homemade obstacle course made of pillows and blankets takes five minutes to set up, and the child will play with it for an hour.
— Limit time spent sitting. TV, tablet, phone — anything that requires long, static sitting works directly against what the child’s body needs. The less screen time, the more room for movement.
— Be in motion yourselves. The child learns by imitation. A parent who runs in the yard, rides a bicycle, hikes in the mountains — does more for the child’s development than ten purchased educational toys. Shared movement is doubly valuable: it trains the body and builds the bond.
When it’s worth consulting a specialist
Most children develop gross motor skills on their own, given the right conditions. Movement, time, space, and free play are enough. But there are signals worth noticing and — if in doubt — consulting with a paediatric physiotherapist or sensory integration therapist.
These signals include: a child who, at age three or four, still falls often, cannot keep balance on one leg even for a few seconds, refuses to climb or walk on uneven ground, tires significantly faster than peers, has trouble stopping while running, avoids playgrounds. The opposite signal can also matter — a child who cannot sit still even for a moment, constantly seeks strong tension in the body (hits, pushes, collides with others), cannot slow down — which often signals that the brain needs much more proprioception than it currently receives.
In both cases, an early consultation is a good investment. Hand therapy without prior work on the body usually gives weak results — because it tries to build precision on an unstable foundation. A good specialist will first work with the whole body, and only then move on to the hand.
Closing the series — and a preview
Our client wrote in one of her recent reels something very simple: big movements support small hands. It’s hard to put it more briefly or more accurately. The whole series of three articles we have just closed comes down to one thought — the child’s hand skill is not built at the table with worksheets. It is built in movement, in real work, with a real tool, in the kitchen, at the playground, on the climbing bars, in the forest.
In part one we wrote about why we let children use real tools at Mr Handyman’s workshop. In part two — about what happens in a child’s hand at the cutting board in our Kuchcikowo. In this third part, we have gone all the way down to the foundation: to the child’s whole body, and how gross motor skills build the motor and cognitive readiness for precision.
Soon we will tell you more about the specific movement activities we run at 7 Krasnoludków — from preschool gymnastics, through obstacle courses and climbing, to dance and music with movement elements. In the meantime, we invite you to the simplest possible experiment: go outside this afternoon with your child and leave the phone at home. Let the child lead. Let them decide what you do. And let it last an hour.
The most beautiful therapeutic work often looks exactly like that — like ordinary play.
This is the third, closing part of our series on hand skill development in preschool-aged children. Watch the reel that inspired this article →