Does Drawing Build Fine Motor Skills? What Research on Hands and Drawing Shows

The CDC’s list of milestones by age 4 includes this item: “Holds crayon or pencil between fingers and thumb (not a fist).” The CDC describes milestones as things most children, 75% or more, can do by a certain age.

Grip changes during the preschool years, and so do the shapes a child can draw. Does drawing itself help build those finger skills? This article goes through what research and official guidance can and cannot say.

What hands can do at each age

These are the hand-related items on the CDC lists.

• By 2 years: holds something in one hand while using the other, such as holding a container and taking the lid off
• By 3 years: draws a circle when shown how; strings items together, like large beads or macaroni
• By 4 years: holds a crayon or pencil between fingers and thumb; draws a person with three or more body parts; unbuttons some buttons
• By 5 years: buttons some buttons; writes some letters of their name

Drawing sits on the same lists as stringing beads and doing up buttons.

Drawing and hand strength

In a study published in 2019, a team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues asked 73 children aged 2 to 5 and 24 adults to copy six shapes, among them a circle, a square, a triangle and a cross. They also measured pinch and grip strength, and asked parents about fine motor milestones and how often and how long their children drew at home.

Among children aged 3 and up, only one link with hand strength survived after controlling for age: pinch strength and the quality of shapes drawn with a marker on paper. Parent-reported fine motor achievement and the length of drawing sessions with traditional materials were related to most of the shape-copying results, and most of those links held after controlling for age.

So children who drew for longer stretches on paper at home tended to copy shapes better. This is a snapshot of one point in time. It cannot tell us whether longer drawing built the skill or whether more skilled hands draw for longer. Fewer than two thirds of parents returned the survey, and the authors note that this part rests on a relatively small sample.

Shape copying also comes up in other work. Cameron and colleagues (2012) assessed the motor skills of 213 American 3- and 4-year-olds before kindergarten. Design copying in particular predicted higher achievement on several tests at kindergarten entry, and improvement from fall to spring. That is also a study of association. It did not test whether more drawing practice raises scores.

A case where hand practice made a difference

Some research has added hand activities and looked for change. Rule and Stewart (2002) gave kindergartners Montessori practical life materials, such as tweezers, tongs and spoons. In a pretest and posttest comparison, the children with these materials outperformed the control group. Teachers in both groups reported equal amounts of fine motor activity.

That study was not about drawing. None of the studies in this article measured what happens to hand strength or dexterity when children simply keep drawing. Drawing and hand skills go together, but the research here does not establish that drawing is what builds them.

Paper and tablet

What the comparisons of paper and tablet show first is that the physical conditions differ.

The Wisconsin study had each participant copy the same shapes three ways: marker on paper, stylus on a tablet, and finger on a tablet. The stylus was built from a marker shell, so it looked and weighed the same as the marker. Younger children and boys produced more recognizable shapes with a finger. The authors suggest that drawing with a finger requires less motor control than drawing with an implement.

Among the shapes that could be scored, the children’s quality did not differ across the three methods. Adults drew better with a marker on paper. In free drawing, children were more likely to pick the tablet, and adults rarely did.

A 2016 study from the University of Potsdam compared pens on paper and on a tablet, with 25 preschoolers (mean age 5.4), 27 second graders and 25 adults. The tablet surface was smoother than paper, and movement was generally faster on it. Preschoolers and second graders made more errors on zigzag lines and were less accurate on shape-copying tests. The authors concluded that the smoother surface requires extra control and might be an added challenge for children learning to write. The study focused on handwriting, and its devices had plastic surfaces.

The two studies disagree in places. The Wisconsin authors point out that the youngest age in the Potsdam study was the oldest age in theirs, which may be part of the reason.

Both looked at short tasks, not at hand development over a long period.

None of the studies here followed children drawing on paper and on tablets over time and compared how their hands developed. What the research supports is narrower: finger or tool, and smooth surface or not, change the task for the hand, and the results depend on the child’s age and the task.

Montessori’s hand exercises

Maria Montessori described a sequence of hand exercises leading up to drawing in Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook (1914).

A child first follows the outlines of wooden geometric insets with two fingers. She calls this “an indirect but very real preparation for drawing.” Later the child lays a metal frame on paper, holds it down with one hand, and follows the inside outline with a colored pencil. It is the same movement, now made through a pencil.

Then the child holds the pencil “like a pen for writing” and fills the shape with up and down marks. According to the book, the first attempts ignore the outlines, with heavy lines that are not parallel. Little by little the marks stay inside, grow finer and more numerous, and become parallel.

This is a description from classroom observation, not an experiment. It does set out a concrete order: touch the outline, trace it with a tool, then fill it in. For Montessori’s approach to letters, see Montessori Sandpaper Letters.

Other play that uses the hands

The CDC’s 3-year page suggests squishing, pressing and pinching playdough and making balls with it, and says, “This builds her hand and finger muscles for writing, buttoning, and cutting.” The 5-year page mentions puzzles and building blocks, buttoning a shirt and pouring water into a cup.

For more on specific skills, see scissors practice, how to teach pencil grip and weak pencil pressure.

Summary

• Longer drawing sessions on paper at home go along with better shape copying. Which comes first is unknown.
• In one study, activities with tweezers and tongs raised scores on a fine motor test.
• None of the studies here measured hand changes from drawing alone.
• Younger children produce recognizable shapes more easily with a finger on a tablet.
• With a pen, a smooth tablet surface can lower accuracy for children aged about 5 and up.
• None of the studies here compared drawing on paper and tablets over a long period.

Sources

• CDC, “Milestones by 2 Years,” “Milestones by 3 Years,” “Milestones by 4 Years,” “Milestones by 5 Years”
• Kirkorian, H. L., Travers, B. G., Jiang, M. J., Choi, K., Rosengren, K. S., Pavalko, P., Tolkin, E. (2019). “Drawing Across Media: A Cross-Sectional Experiment on Preschoolers’ Drawings Produced Using Traditional Versus Electronic Mediums.” Developmental Psychology.
• Cameron, C. E., Brock, L. L., Murrah, W. M., Bell, L. H., Worzalla, S. L., Grissmer, D., Morrison, F. J. (2012). “Fine motor skills and executive function both contribute to kindergarten achievement.” Child Development 83(4).
• Rule, A. C., Stewart, R. A. (2002). “Effects of Practical Life Materials on Kindergartners’ Fine Motor Skills.” Early Childhood Education Journal 30(1).
• Gerth, S., Klassert, A., Dolk, T., Fliesser, M., Fischer, M. H., Nottbusch, G., Festman, J. (2016). “Is Handwriting Performance Affected by the Writing Surface?” Frontiers in Psychology 7.
• Montessori, M. (1914). Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook.

Drawing in Kinder Paint

Kinder Paint is a drawing app for iPhone and iPad, made for children ages 2 to 6 under the supervision of an AMI Montessori teacher.

Children can draw with a finger or an Apple Pencil. With an Apple Pencil, pressure changes the thickness or darkness of most pens. There are shape tools for lines, circles, squares and triangles, and a fill that colors an area with one tap. Paint Academy offers tracing lessons, and its Leaf Shapes set is based on the 18 leaf forms of the Montessori botany cabinet.

The basic drawing features are free, and the free plan saves up to three canvases. The Manga and Dot canvases, the Paint Academy tracing lessons and unlimited canvases come with the paid Kinder Paint Pro, and free users can try Paint Academy first. There are no ads and no account. For a first session, see Getting Started with Kinder Paint.