Scissor Practice for Toddlers: A Safe Order for Learning to Cut

A safety notice from Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency, on keeping children from being hurt by scissors and other blades, lists accidents reported by hospitals. A 6-year-old cutting a hole in thick card cut a finger and damaged an artery and a nerve. A 3-year-old reached out when an older sibling tried to take the scissors and cut a thumb. The notice was written with Halloween and Christmas crafts coming up.

The first measures it lists are teaching children the correct way to use scissors and having them cut where a parent can see. In Japan, scissors are an ordinary tool in elementary school art class. This post covers age guides, tools and rules, and the order in which cutting comes together.

Stages by age

The UK’s Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust gives these stages in its guide to scissor skills:

• 2 to 2.5 years: shows interest and may open and close scissors
• 2.5 to 3 years: makes single snips without much control
• 3 years: begins to cut forward across a 6-inch line, and may steady the paper with the other hand
• 3.5 to 4.5 years: cuts down a 6-inch line with slight errors, and may begin curves and circles
• 4.5 to 5 years: cuts out a square and other simple shapes
• 6 years: cuts complex shapes that mix curves and straight lines

According to the same guide, children may manage small scissors by three to four, and scissor skills are not fully developed until about six. Slight errors on a line are part of the stage at around age four. It also says children need good sitting balance so that their arms and hands are free to move.

Choosing scissors

Rounded tips. The Gateshead guide recommends rounded ends over pointed ones.

Small enough for the hand. A guide from a Welsh health board notes that smaller scissors are easier for children.

Matched to the dominant hand. Japan’s education ministry tells teachers to provide scissors that fit each child’s hand and dominant hand. The Gateshead guide says left-handed children should always have left-handed scissors, because in a left hand, right-handed blades get pulled apart and the cut is less clean. It adds that ambidextrous scissors can loosen and block the view of the cutting line.

Test them first. Open and close them and check that the pivot screw isn’t loose. That is also from the ministry’s guidance.

House rules

The Consumer Affairs Agency’s notice and the education ministry’s classroom guidance translate into these rules for home.

Use them where an adult can see. Also tell your child in words that gripping the blades causes injuries.

When not cutting, close the blades and put them on the table or in a box. Not on the floor or a chair.

Hand them over handle first. Hold the blade end yourself, pointed away from the other person.

Keep a younger child away while an older one is cutting. Siblings get hurt by fighting over scissors or reaching in during use.

Put them away right after use. Store them out of reach so small children can’t take them. The same goes for box cutters and razors.

Grip and posture

Sit on a chair at a table with feet on the floor, as the Welsh guide says. According to the education ministry, hold the paper so it doesn’t move, cut in front of the body, and keep the scissors upright against the paper so the blades don’t tilt.

The thumb goes on top. The Welsh guide suggests the reminder “thumbs on top”, and the Gateshead guide uses a “thumbs up” hand position. Both suggest marking the thumb hole, with a sticker or coloured tape. The Gateshead guide adds that an index finger in front helps with control, and that holding a beanbag between the elbow and side keeps the arm in position.

Teach the job of the other hand too. One hand cuts and the other holds the paper. The Welsh guide suggests a sticker or drawn mark showing where to hold. Pencil grip is covered in How to Teach Pencil Grip.

The order of learning to cut

1. Open and close in the air. Show how to hold the scissors and practice the cutting motion without paper. This is the first activity the Gateshead guide lists.

2. Cut something off in one snip. A note on classroom materials for 3-year-olds, published on a Fukushima University site, says children can’t use scissors in a continuous snip-snip from the start, and that cutting off a narrow strip with one close looks easiest. Children cheer when something comes off, so the note says to give them plenty of it. The Gateshead guide starts with playdough sausages or thick card, which is more rigid to hold, before other textures and paper. Plastic scissors can be used on playdough. The Welsh guide suggests small pieces of paper and straws. Short lengths of plastic straw can be threaded as beads.

3. Cut forward along a thick line. A long line means opening and closing again and again while moving along it. The Gateshead guide suggests snipping along lolly sticks or straws stuck to paper, then gradually moving to thinner lines.

4. From straight lines to curves. The Welsh guide’s order is thick lines before thin, and straight before curved. On a curve, turn the paper rather than the scissors, as the education ministry says.

5. Cut out shapes. Move on to a square and other simple shapes. The Gateshead guide puts this at around 4.5 to 5 years.

The order of lines matches line practice before letters: straight lines first, curves later.

Playing with what gets cut

The Fukushima note also covers what happens after the cutting. When children pasted cut paper onto a backing sheet to make hydrangea flowers, 3-year-olds did not seem to find it very appealing, and it ended once it went up on the wall. So, to make things they could play with, they made pizzas and delivered them on a motorbike built from a milk carton. Crabs and squid, with legs made by a snip, went into a fishing game. Some children even grilled their catch on a toy net.

What BrainDojo Kids does

BrainDojo Kids is an iPhone and iPad app I make for ages 3 to 6, where children write on the screen with a finger or a pen to practice letters and numbers.

The First Lines course starts with straight lines and moves on to diagonals, waves and spirals. The first four stages are free. The training games include a maze game as well. The three daily games in Today’s Training and the four Recommended games are free each day, and every other game can be tried once.

In the parent settings there is a daily time limit, on by default at 10 minutes. There are no ads and no account to create. The app is free to start, and a Premium subscription (monthly or yearly) opens all courses and games. The first session is covered in Getting Started with BrainDojo Kids.