Focus on Dough Disco

As part of our finger gym blog series, I wanted to talk about the wonderful benefits of dough disco to children’s learning and development. In particular development of those all-important physical skills, including both gross and fine motor that we develop in the early years. Finger gym is something that I am so passionate about making a difference to children’s development and learning, but also it is fun, creative, and engaging for young children. I was first exposed to finger gym several years ago when I went to the childcare expo and saw a demonstration by funky feet. If you don’t know who funky feet are click here, they will instantly make you fall in love with dough disco.

The songs are catchy, the movements are challenging and fun and most of all it is grounded in a good understanding of how children learn, grow, and develop. With links to how it supports development and growth and the reasons behind why dough disco is designed the way it is. A clear intention, before we even began to use the words intent, implementation, and impact in every conversation we had regarding the early year’s curriculum.

So, what are considered some of the numerous benefits of dough disco? Below are just a few:

·         Supports the development of children’s gross motor skills such as shoulder pivots, elbow pivots and wrist pivots that are all essential for early writing.

·         Helps to develop children fine motor skills (small movements)

·         Helps to develop the muscles in children’s hands.

·         Supports children’s communication and language development.

·         Promotes movements that cross the midlines in the body, which help promote brain activity and connection between ideas.

I will never forget the time I was doing finger gym in a nursery and became known by the local Occupational Therapist (OT) as the dough disco lady for many years to come. Who took the wonderfulness of dough disco back to the office with her and into numerous early years settings. So, if you haven’t tried out dough disco yet, what are you waiting for?

Check out our new playdough disco action cards here…why not encourage the children to sequence their own movements and actions along to their favourite songs. A great activity for promoting communication and language skills, personal social and emotional development, physical development and expressive arts and design.