Whenever I bought a crafts set for my kid, I used to hide the pair of scissors and give her the rest of the set. Somehow I couldn’t overcome my fear of letting her handle a pair of scissors all by herself. But when I did one day- I saw how much she could learn with it and how she used both her hands deftly with the scissors! That’s when it struck me. Teaching children how to use scissors is often neglected by us. But it plays a crucial role in developing the fine motor skills required to hold pencils, crayons and supports the entire process of learning how to write.
It could be a complex task for us to teach children how to cut using scissors. So here are a few simple tips to help develop scissor skills in young children to make this tricky process a lot simpler and enjoyable.
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Tips for teaching Scissor Skills:
- Introduce children to ripping by the age of 3. Give them some old newspapers, colour papers or even play dough to rip away.
- Gradually introduce them to snipping and fringing papers, straws, craft foam and stems under your supervision.
- A high quality pair of scissors with all the safety parameters covered should be used. Don’t compromise on that.
- Wrap an electrical tape around the thumb hole so children know where to put their thumbs.
- Encourage your child to keep both thumb nails facing towards ceiling when cutting.
- By the age of 4, introduce them to straight, zigzag and curve lines.
- Make your own worksheets with various shapes and alphabets.
- Move on to more complex cutting like images from magazines for collages and paper fold cutting like flowers and snowflakes.
- Encourage your child to keep one hand with scissors steady and simultaneously turn the page with the other hand.
Importance of Scissor Skills:
- Helps strengthen muscles crucial for developing fine motor skills.
- Develops eye – hand coordination.
- Develops tripod grasp (thumb and first two fingers).
- Enhances creativity.
Here is a step by step sequence you can follow to prepare your toddler for great scissor skills. Â
 Rip
  
 Snip
 Fringe
Straight Lines
Zigzag lines
Curved lines
Shapes
Letters of the Alphabet
Complex Cutting
Try these at home under your supervision and let us know how your kids enjoyed it in the comments section below.
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Mansi Zaveri
Rati Ramadas Girish
Parul Gupta
