Activities to Develop In-Hand Manipulation Skills

In-hand manipulation allows you to improve your grasping skills by shifting and rotating a pen or pencil within your hand during writing tasks. These skills help you move a pencil to erase an error and then smoothly return to writing. 

These activities may help develop your in-hand manipulation skills: 

• Playing finger tug-of-war by grasping objects with your index finger and thumb 
• Flipping cosmetic wedges between the tips of your fingers and thumb 
• Moving your fingers down and up a pencil, using the tips of your fingers 
• Flipping a pencil from the writing position to the erasing position 
• Rotating quarters between your fingertips 
• Rotating a detergent cap or milk cap forward and backward 
• Squirreling and desquirreling items such as dimes or paper clips in and out of your palm 
• Drawing small circles or circling within circles 
• Making small pea-sized balls out of Theraputty® or clay using your thumb and index finger
• or thumb, index finger, and middle finger 
• Stringing beads 
• Threading pipe cleaners through a coffee lid 
• Lacing tennis shoes 
• Threading a large sewing card 

Ask your therapist if you have questions about the activities listed above. 

Ideas adapted from Mary Benbow’s hand skills.