Using scissors helps to improve hand eye coordination and is great for building muscle tone that will be required for writing later on in schooling years.
It is also something that requires a bit of practice!
Often little ones may start to show an interest in cutting but can find it really hard and often get frustrated when they can’t manage to do it.
If you have a child who is showing an interest and you are wanting to introduce using scissors as part of school readiness then an easy way for them to start would be to practice with playdough.
This is one of our favourite materials to practice cutting because it’s easy for children to hold and the texture is fun to cut!
Rolling the playdough into a ‘snake’ is a good one to start with. You could even make indents into the snake and encourage them to cut the lines. Or your little one might simply enjoy just cutting it up as they want.
Initially, some children can find it challenging to hold the scissors in a vertical position. Using the ‘snake’ is a really good way to help correct this.