Practicing fine motor skills: the pincer grip and hand grip strength
Author: Stephanie Harms
Pediatric physiotherapist
Hap-Hap-Hap-Mox!
MOX is a small blue ball with a mouth and two eyes. The snapping ball is always hungry and eats everything until his belly is full.
In my practice, the MOX is actually called the snack, but some children also call it Pac-Man or the blue man. It is one of the materials that the children immediately grab when they look in my 'toolbox'.
Although I have only been using the balls for a few months, I still find new ways to use them in my exercises and games. The MOX ball is now not only available in blue, but in several bright and soft colors, which is very nice.
The MOX is mainly used in my practice to practice fine motor skills. The tweezer grip and hand grip strength. Unlike the large and small tweezers, with which I often practice the grips, the blue ball requires a bit more force to squeeze, which makes it a good hand trainer.
Practicing the pincer grip
When you squeeze well with the tip of your thumb and fingers, the mouth of the MOX opens straight and it can 'eat' objects. This requires some coordination, because if you do not squeeze well next to the mouth or squeeze with the side of your fingers, you get a crooked mouth.
By squeezing harder and softer, you can pick up or eat larger and smaller objects. When spitting out again, the material will quickly get stuck if the mouth is opened too wide (squeezing hard). It is a challenge to squeeze softly enough to let something fall out of the mouth.
You can also choose to grab an object between the 'lips' of the mouth or to eat the object completely.
Materials I like to use are larger and smaller pompoms, marbles and waterbeads. But you can also use rice, pluffle playfoam or beans for example.
Other motor exercises
– If you have multiple MOX balls you can try stacking them.
– Let the blue man talk by repeatedly opening and closing his mouth. Children find this very funny, but with young children it is sometimes also a nice 'icebreaker' to make contact.
For young and old
The MOX ball is also very interesting for a baby, toddler or preschooler. You can let the ball roll away. Because it does not roll away too far and too quickly, even the little ones who cannot walk yet can crawl or crawl after the ball.
The ball comes to life when you make it talk and eat something. And what a challenge it is, for those little ones, to get out what you put in it for them (preferably something edible, since those little ones of course like to put everything in their mouths themselves).
In short, super fun practice material and toys for both young and older children that challenge them to play creatively and make contact!
