Learning to cut with scissors!

When children first learn to cut with scissors, they are still developing their fine motor skills.
One of the most important skills that need to be mastered, is separating the 2 sides of the hand for skilled hand use. This means that they have to learn to use the thumb, index and middle finger together to manipulate tools and objects. They must also learn to keep their ring and little fingers tucked in the palm of the hand (this also prepares the hand for holding a pencil correctly). This part of the hand provides essential stability for the moving /dexterity fingers.

Choosing scissors for your child

The best type scissors when learning to cut, are the old fashioned type with two loops of the same size. Later, once they have developed separation of the two sides of the hand, using scissors where the bottom loop is enlarged is fine.

• scissors should be held with the thumb in the top loop
• the middle finger goes in the bottom loop
• the index finger is placed on the outside of the scissors to be free to guide the scissors around the curves
• scissors should always point away from the body
• keep elbows tucked in
• scissors and picture must always be held below the shoulders (not in front of the face)
• paper should be help with the non-dominant hand with the thumb on the top of the paper