There are tons of creative and playful activities for kids that can target hand strength. Some of our favorites fall into 3 categories: weight bearing, pushing and pulling, and squeezing!
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It’s one of the most common problem areas we as occupational therapists see with the kids in our practices: hand strength.
Kids who struggle with hand strength may have difficulty with: grasping a pencil learning to use scissors managing clothing fasteners handwriting We look for a pattern of these red flags when we’re trying to determine whether a child has weak hands.
Download the free printable with all of our hand strength red flags here. There are tons of creative and playful activities for kids that can target hand strength. Some of the best ideas involve building hand strength through everyday play!
My favorites fall into three main categories: weight bearing activities, pushing and pulling activities, and squeezing activities. Check out these fun activities and exercises for hand strength!
The Hand Strengthening Exercise Program
This 23-page printable digital resource is packed with more than 30 ideas and exercises for hand strength through play and includes QR codes that lead to engaging video clips of each activity. The resource also includes printable cards with the scannable QR codes and suggestions for using them at home, in the classroom, or in the therapy room.
Weight Bearing Activities for Kids
Weight bearing activities for kids are a great way to build strength in the hands and stability in the upper body.
1 || Crawling
Try relay races, obstacle courses, and other games. These are great hand strengthening exercises for kids that can help with building strength in the hands and wrists.
2 || Donkey kicks
If you’re wondering how to build hand strength in kids – the most effective way is through play! Have the child bend forward to place his hands on the floor and then kick his legs up behind them like a donkey.
3 || Wheelbarrow walks
Have the child place her palms on the floor while you or another child holds her feet. See how far she can walk on her hands.
4 || Yoga for kids
Yoga poses are great for building hand strength! Poses like downward dog, table pose, and handstand are great weight bearing poses for kids to try!
5 || Play in All Fours
Try playing board games, coloring, or playing with toys in a crawling position so the child is holding his weight on his hands.
6 || Tummy Time
Here’s a great hand strengthener for babies…Tummy Time! Fun tummy time toys help keep things a little more entertaining too!
Pushing and Pulling Toys and Activities for Kids
7 || Lego or Duplo blocks
Legos and Duplo blocks awesome for developing grasp strength! Smaller Lego bricks are great for older kids with more advanced skills, while the larger Duplo version is best for the younger crowd.
8 || Velcro
Pulling against heavy duty Velcro is another great exercise for hand strength. Try adapting books using Velcro, making file folder games, or making other fun velcro fine motor tasks!
9 || Connecting Beads
These large beads that pop together are great for strengthening the larger muscles of the hand and these pop beads are a smaller version, great for developing the precision muscles.
10 || Mr. Potato Head
A toddler and preschool favorite, Mr. Potato Head is a great starter toy for hand strengthening. The pieces are relatively big and easy to grasp and the repetition of changing the faces over and over again is great for strengthening!
11 || Rubber Bands
Kids can stretch and pull against the resistance to create masterpieces on a geoboard. We also love this rubber band passing game and this easy fine motor activity! Or try these fun loom band ideas.
12 || Pegs and Foam Pegboards
This is another great starter activity for young kids working on hand strength. The foam pegboards are a little tougher to push the peg into, providing resistance and a great opportunity for strength building!
13 || Tape
Pulling tape off of the roll and/or pulling it off of various surfaces (walls, tables, floors) is a great hand strengthener for kids. Check out these easy activities for kids using tape!
14 || Pop Toobs
Pop Toobs are awesome. I’ve never met a kid who didn’t love the cool sound they make and the neat vibrating sensation when you pull them apart and push them together. Play a few rounds of tug of war with these little gems and you’ve got your hand strengthening in for the day!
15 || Rolling Pins
Grasping, pushing, and rolling with a rolling pin are great ways to strengthen kids’ fingers and hands. Try it on play dough, bubble wrap, or during cooking activities! Check out these fun play doh hand strength activities using manipulatives + play doh!
16 || Theraband
Theraband is another great “tug of war tool”. There are all kinds of ways to pull on it and against it to strengthen hands – kids will be in love!
17 || Squigz
If you don’t know about these rad little suckers, you totally need to check them out. They’re fun, they’re colorful, they make a great little popping noise when you pull them – distracting kids from the fact that they’re getting a great hand workout!
18 || Climbing
Climbing on just about anything is awesome for building hand strength in kids. Think ropes, ladders, trees, jungle gyms, any playground equipment, and more!
19 || Tearing paper
Two little hands working together to on paper tearing activities is a simple and fun way to target hand strength.
20 || Cooking with Kids
Kneading dough, stirring batter, scooping, cutting, you name it…if it happens in the kitchen, it’s probably a hand strengthener!
Squeezing Activities for Kids
21 || Playing with play dough, putty, or clay
Squish, pinch, roll, squeeze, smush – all great for building muscles in the hands!
22 || Sponges
Get kids involved in chores where they have to wring out sponges or wet rags – clean house and strong hands? Don’t mind if we do!
23 || Spray bottles, water guns, squeeze bottles
Have a water fight in the backyard, have kids water your plants with a spray bottle, or try Erupting Rainbow Sidewalk Chalk Paint in a squeeze bottle!
24 || Squeeze Balls or Stretchy Balls
Use these as fidget toys or challenge kids to do several reps of squeezing or pulling to build strength. Check out this super fun Feed the Mouth Ball activity! Or try simply squeezing a stress ball.
25 || Clips and clothespins
Some of the most commonly used materials in my therapy practice! There are a zillion ways to play with clips and clothespins! This fun Monster Munch Fine Motor Game is my students’ favorite (and mine too)!
26 || Hole Punches
These little hand strengtheners come in all shapes and sizes – great for making hole punch crafts with kids! Check out our favorite hole punch for kids here!
27 || Scissors
Try cutting against resistance: thicker paper or cardstock, play dough or clay, or check out this cool idea for practicing scissors – great for visual motor skills and hand strength! Remember to practice thumbs up positioning with elbows tucked into the sides!
28 || Glue Bottles
Crafting with liquid glue is an easy way to help kids work on hand strength. Try our free printable glue practice pages! We use these pages regularly as occupational therapy fine motor strengthening activities.
29 || Turkey Baster
Squeezing the squishy end of a turkey baster…what could be more fun? Use one to blow pompoms across the table or try a turkey baster relay!
30 || Sensory Balloons
Fill balloons with dry rice, beans, flour, or play dough. Have kids squeeze and squish them in their hands to build strength. Check out this fun Baby Bumblebee Activity! And take a look at our instructions for making a hand strengthening fidget toy.
31 || Crumpling Paper
We love doing this during handwriting practice. Use smaller pieces of writing paper and have kids write sight words, spelling words, or short sentences on them. Then, crumple up each piece to shoot a basket into the recycling bin! This is one of our favorite fine motor strengthening activities for preschoolers!
32 || Bath Toys
Squishy, squeezy toys can make bath time even more fun! Especially the ones that squirt water!
33 || Milking a Cow
Don’t have a real one? We didn’t think so. Try this fun fine motor strengthening activity instead – it’s one of our most popular fine motor strengthening activities here at The Inspired Treehouse!
34 || Bubble Wrap
It comes in all different sizes and kids love the sound it makes when they snap it between their fingers. The bubble wrap with the smallest bubbles is best for strengthening those Super Fingers, while larger bubble wrap can strengthen the whole hand!
35 || Tongs and Tweezers Hand Strengthening Exercises
Use them to pick up pompoms and other toys, throw them in a sensory bin, or use them to pick up blocks to stack into a tower! Check out our favorite ways to play with tongs!
more hand strengthening Exercises and Activities kids
There are tons of fun and playful hand strengthening exercises and activities for kids to try in the classroom, in the therapy room, and at home!
Check out our Hand Strength Red Flags for Kids and download the free checklist.
Learn more about why kids’ hands aren’t as strong as they used to be.
Find our all-time favorite ways to support hand strength in kids!
And don’t miss these fun ideas for building hand strength through play!
[…] fun. (HOLY BACKFIRING MELTDOWN) So imagine my excitement and relief when my friend Claire at the Inspired Treehouse wrote this article on 35 ways to strengthen hand muscles… without writing! We have been doing […]