As Occupational Therapists, one of the first concepts we learn in graduate school is “proximal stability improves distal mobility”, which is a fancy way for saying, if you have a strong core, you will increase your ability to use your hands functionally. If your child has a poor pencil grasp or difficulty manipulating small objects, he or she may have weak finger muscles and could benefit from hand strengthening activities. But when it comes to improving hand dexterity, there is also a HUGE benefit to building core muscles to support hand skill development! Usually, I try to write my own posts. This week, Halloween occupied my Thursday night blogging, so I am sharing an article from the Inspired Treehouse that discusses this topic and explains “why kids’ hands aren’t as strong as they used to be”. Stay tuned for next week’s blog for some KidSHINE activity ideas and suggestions for building your child’s core and your child’s hands 🙂