Three year olds can cut using scissors. If you have a three year old child, you know they are fascinated with scissors and their potential to cut anything and everything from paper to clothing and hair!

Using scissors requires a lot of skill and fine motor development, and these start to develop well before the age of three.

How do you help your child develop the muscles in their hands?

Anything which involves squeezing or pinching type actions will be good, for example:

• Squeezing the water out of bath tub sponges;
• Rolling, flattening and shaping playdough;
• Pinching clothes pegs open;
• Using small tongs to pick up pieces of salad, or small items such as pompoms;
• Using an eye dropper with coloured water in to drop onto paper;
• Squeezing water out of empty, clean plastic bottles and;
• Using a plant mister with a trigger action.

Regular play as above will strengthen the small muscles in their hands, ready for scissors and writing. Read more