Motor Activities for Toddlers: Building Strength and Coordination Through Play

Quick Answer: The best motor activities for toddlers are the ones they’ll actually do—and that usually means play. For fine motor development (hand strength and dexterity needed for writing), focus on playdough, building with blocks, and simple art activities. For gross motor development (running, jumping, climbing), prioritize outdoor play, dancing, ball games, and anything that gets their whole body moving. You don’t need fancy equipment. You need daily opportunities for varied physical play.

Why Motor Development Matters More Than You Think

When people talk about getting kids “ready for school,” they usually focus on letters and numbers. But occupational therapists and kindergarten teachers will tell you something different: physical development matters just as much, sometimes more.

A child who enters kindergarten without adequate fine motor development struggles to hold a pencil correctly, cuts sloppily with scissors, and fatigues quickly during writing tasks. That physical difficulty creates frustration that looks like behavior problems or lack of interest in learning. The issue isn’t that they can’t learn to write—it’s that their hands aren’t strong enough yet.

Gross motor development has equally important implications. A child with poor gross motor skills has trouble sitting upright in a chair for extended periods (that requires core strength), struggles on the playground (which affects social dynamics), and may have difficulty with the physical organization of a classroom—moving between stations, sitting criss-cross, lining up.

The good news is that motor development happens naturally through play. You don’t need to drill exercises or buy specialized equipment. You need to give your toddler lots of opportunities to move, manipulate objects, and use their body. The developmental work happens automatically when children play actively.

Understanding Fine Motor vs. Gross Motor Skills

Motor skills divide into two categories, and both need attention during the toddler and preschool years.

Fine motor skills involve the small muscles of the hands and fingers. These are the precise movements needed for tasks like picking up small objects, holding a crayon, buttoning a shirt, or eventually writing. Fine motor development happens gradually as children manipulate objects, build things, create art, and use their hands in increasingly precise ways.

When your toddler squishes playdough, they’re building the intrinsic hand muscles that will later grip a pencil. When they stack blocks, they’re developing the finger control needed for precise movements. When they peel stickers or tear paper, they’re practicing the pincer grasp essential for writing. None of it looks like “pre-writing practice,” but that’s exactly what it is.

Gross motor skills involve the large muscles of the body—arms, legs, and core. These are the big movements: walking, running, jumping, climbing, throwing, kicking. Gross motor development is about building strength, coordination, and body awareness.

A toddler learning to run is developing the physical capabilities that will let them participate in sports, play on playground equipment, and move confidently through physical space. But they’re also building the core strength needed to sit upright in a chair and the body awareness that prevents constant bumping into things and knocking stuff over.

Both types of motor skills develop through the preschool years and support each other. Strong gross motor development provides the stable base that fine motor control requires.

What Normal Motor Development Looks Like

Understanding typical milestones helps you provide appropriate activities and identify potential concerns early.

Between twelve and eighteen months, toddlers are just gaining independence in movement. They’re walking, maybe starting to run in that stiff-legged toddler way. They’re climbing onto furniture (whether you want them to or not) and pushing or pulling toys around. For fine motor skills, they’re grasping objects with their whole hand, starting to stack a couple of blocks, and putting things into containers.

From eighteen months to two years, physical abilities expand rapidly. Running becomes smoother, kicking a ball becomes possible, and climbing gets more adventurous. Fine motor skills progress too—stacking gets taller, scribbling with crayons begins, and the pincer grasp (thumb and finger together) develops more fully.

Two to three-year-olds can jump with both feet, walk up stairs holding a railing, and start to pedal tricycles. Their fine motor control now allows for more complex building, stringing large beads, and more intentional drawing—circles and lines rather than just scribbles. They can turn pages in a book one at a time and are beginning to manage clothing fasteners with help.

Three to four-year-olds can hop on one foot briefly, throw a ball overhand, catch a large ball with arms extended, and navigate playground equipment confidently. Fine motor skills now include holding crayons or markers with fingers rather than fist, using scissors with some accuracy, and copying basic shapes.

Remember that these are general guidelines with wide variation. A child might be ahead in gross motor skills but developing more slowly in fine motor, or vice versa. Consistent progress matters more than hitting exact milestones at exact ages.

Fine Motor Activities That Actually Work

The activities that build fine motor skills don’t look like exercises—they look like play. Here’s what actually works.

Playdough and Clay

Playdough is a fine motor powerhouse. When children squeeze, roll, pinch, poke, and shape playdough, they’re building the intrinsic muscles of the hand—the same muscles that will later hold a pencil with the proper tripod grip.

The beauty of playdough is that it’s endlessly engaging. A toddler will happily spend twenty or thirty minutes squishing and molding, building hand strength with every moment. You don’t need to structure it or direct it. Just provide the dough and let them explore.

Add tools to extend the play: rolling pins, cookie cutters, plastic knives, garlic presses (for making “hair” or “noodles”). Each tool engages the hands differently. Pushing down on a cookie cutter works different muscles than rolling a ball between the palms.

Hide small toys in the dough for your child to discover. This adds purpose to the manipulation and makes them work to extract items—building grip strength and fine motor control.

Make homemade playdough together for a bonus activity. Mixing, kneading, and shaping the dough during preparation provides its own motor workout.

Building and Stacking

Stacking blocks, cups, or boxes develops hand-eye coordination and finger control. The precision required to balance one block on another trains the same systems needed for fine motor tasks.

Start with larger, more stable blocks for younger toddlers. As coordination improves, progress to smaller blocks that require more precise placement. The frustration of a toppling tower is actually valuable—it teaches cause and effect and encourages problem-solving about how to make structures more stable.

Duplo and similar large interlocking blocks add another dimension. Pressing blocks together and pulling them apart requires significant hand strength. Building upward requires planning and controlled placement.

Don’t underestimate simple stacking cups or nesting toys. They’re classic developmental toys for a reason. Figuring out which cup fits inside which, stacking them in order, building towers—all of this develops spatial awareness and fine motor control.

Art and Mark-Making

Any activity that involves making marks on paper builds the muscles and control needed for later writing. Scribbling counts. It looks like chaos, but it’s practice.

Offer thick crayons for younger toddlers—they’re easier to grip and more forgiving. As your child’s grip develops, transition to regular crayons, then markers, then eventually colored pencils. Each requires slightly different grip strength and control.

Finger painting engages different muscles than tool-based art. The whole-hand movements and tactile feedback support motor development while also being deeply satisfying for most toddlers. Yes, it’s messy. That’s part of the developmental value—learning to control movements while working with a slippery medium.

Painting with brushes, both large and small, develops grip and wrist control. Stamping with sponges or objects requires controlled pressure. Even just tearing paper or crumpling it into balls builds hand strength.

The goal isn’t beautiful artwork. The goal is hand engagement. Whatever your toddler is willing to do with art materials provides motor development benefit.

Threading and Stringing

Threading beads onto string, pipe cleaners, or shoelaces is excellent fine motor practice. It requires the pincer grasp, hand-eye coordination, and bilateral coordination (using both hands together).

Start with chunky wooden beads and thick, stiff cord (pipe cleaners work great because they hold their shape). Progress to smaller beads and thinner string as skills develop.

Dried pasta—penne, rigatoni—makes a great threading material. Children can paint it first for an extended activity.

Lacing cards provide similar benefit with guided holes to thread through. You can buy these or make them from cardboard with punched holes.

Everyday Opportunities

Fine motor development doesn’t require dedicated activities. Daily life offers constant practice.

Letting your toddler feed themselves—even when it’s messy—develops the grip and control needed to manipulate utensils. Using tongs to serve food from a bowl to a plate is surprisingly good practice. Opening and closing containers builds hand strength.

Dressing provides constant fine motor challenges: buttons, zippers, snaps, shoe fasteners. Yes, it’s faster to do it yourself. But every time your child struggles with a zipper, they’re building the muscles and coordination that will make future zippering easier.

Washing hands, brushing teeth, helping in the kitchen—almost any daily task involves fine motor components if you let your toddler participate rather than doing everything for them.

Gross Motor Activities That Actually Work

Gross motor development happens through active play. The best activities are the ones that get your toddler moving vigorously and using their whole body.

Outdoor Play

Nothing replaces outdoor play for gross motor development. The uneven surfaces, open space, and natural challenges of outdoor environments provide exactly what toddlers need.

Simply walking on grass, sand, or gravel builds balance and coordination in ways that smooth indoor floors don’t. Climbing hills, navigating steps, avoiding puddles—these challenges that adults barely notice provide significant developmental input for toddlers.

Playgrounds are designed for gross motor development. Climbing structures build strength and coordination. Slides teach body control and spatial awareness. Swings develop core strength and rhythm. Even just running around the open space of a park provides cardiovascular development and movement practice.

If you have access to natural environments—woods, beaches, trails—these offer particularly rich motor opportunities. Climbing over logs, walking on uneven terrain, throwing rocks into water, collecting items—all of it contributes to physical development.

Ball Play

Ball activities develop coordination, spatial awareness, and specific motor skills that transfer to sports later on.

Start with rolling a ball back and forth while sitting across from your child. This seems simple, but it requires tracking a moving object, timing the reach, and coordinating arm movement—all skills that need practice.

Progress to throwing and catching. Use large, soft balls at first. Your toddler will “catch” by trapping the ball against their body with arms extended. Over time, they’ll develop the ability to time their hand closure around the ball.

Kicking develops leg coordination and balance. A stationary ball is easier; a rolling ball is more challenging. Most toddlers love kicking, and it’s great exercise.

Bouncing and attempting to catch the bounce adds complexity. Even just chasing a ball around the yard provides running practice and joy.

Dancing and Movement

Music and movement activities develop coordination, rhythm, and body awareness. They’re also pure fun, which means children engage enthusiastically.

Put on music and dance. It doesn’t matter how. Bouncing, spinning, jumping, waving arms—any movement to music develops gross motor skills and rhythmic awareness. Freeze dance (stop when the music stops) adds an element of body control.

Action songs—Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes; The Hokey Pokey; If You’re Happy and You Know It—teach body part awareness while practicing specific movements.

Free-form dancing to your child’s favorite songs might be the easiest gross motor activity of all. No preparation, no equipment, just music and movement.

Climbing

Toddlers are driven to climb. Rather than constantly preventing it, provide safe climbing opportunities.

Indoor climbing can happen on furniture (with supervision), on sturdy climbing toys, or on makeshift obstacle courses of cushions and safe furniture.

Outdoor climbing on playground equipment, rocks, low walls, and trees (when age-appropriate) provides physical challenge and risk assessment practice.

Climbing stairs—with supervision and eventually independently—is itself a significant gross motor activity. It builds leg strength, coordination, and balance.

The urge to climb is developmental. Your toddler isn’t being defiant when they scale the couch—they’re following a biological drive to develop their body. Channel that drive into safe climbing rather than trying to eliminate it.

Running and Jumping

Running is the essence of gross motor development in the toddler years. A child needs to run—a lot—to develop the cardiovascular system, leg strength, and coordination that will serve them throughout life.

Provide opportunities for running. Parks, backyards, open spaces inside—wherever it’s safe to let them go. Chase games (you chase them, they chase you) are toddler favorites that encourage sustained running.

Jumping develops differently. Around age two, most children can jump with both feet leaving the ground. Practice on cushions or soft surfaces at first—it’s more forgiving.

Jumping games become more complex over time: jumping over small objects, jumping to reach things, jumping into puddles, jumping off low surfaces. Each variation challenges the motor system differently.

Building Both Together

Many activities develop fine and gross motor skills simultaneously.

Gardening involves digging with large arm movements (gross motor) and planting small seeds with fingers (fine motor). Carrying the watering can requires strength; carefully watering specific plants requires control.

Cooking incorporates stirring and kneading (gross motor) with pouring and measuring (fine motor). Spreading peanut butter on bread requires sustained force and precise movement.

Sand and water play offers endless motor combinations. Scooping is gross motor; carefully pouring through a funnel is fine motor. Building sandcastles uses both simultaneously.

Art projects on large paper (easel painting, sidewalk chalk) combine big arm movements to make broad strokes with fine motor control for details.

These combination activities are particularly valuable because they teach children to shift between different types of motor control—a skill that real-world tasks constantly require.

Creating a Motor-Rich Home

You don’t need expensive equipment to support motor development. You need a home that allows movement and provides materials to manipulate.

For fine motor development, keep art supplies accessible—crayons, paper, playdough, scissors (age-appropriate). Have puzzles, blocks, and building toys available. Include items that require manipulation: containers with lids, things to open and close, simple toys that require assembly.

For gross motor development, create space to move safely, even if it’s just a cleared area of living room floor. Have balls available. Provide something to climb on—even if it’s just cushions on the floor. Make outdoor play a daily priority, weather permitting.

The key is daily opportunity. Children don’t need dedicated “motor skill sessions.” They need environments where physical play happens naturally and frequently.

When to Be Concerned

Motor development varies significantly among children, and most variation is normal. However, certain signs warrant professional evaluation.

If your child isn’t walking by eighteen months, consult your pediatrician. If you notice significant difference in ability between left and right sides—one hand much stronger than the other, or one leg working differently—bring it up. If your child seems significantly behind peers in motor tasks, or loses skills they previously had, seek evaluation.

Also trust your instincts. If something seems off about how your child moves or uses their hands, mention it to your pediatrician. Early intervention for motor delays makes a significant difference, and there’s no downside to checking something that turns out to be fine.

Occupational therapists specialize in fine motor development; physical therapists specialize in gross motor development. Your pediatrician can refer you if evaluation is warranted.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much physical activity do toddlers need?

Toddlers need at least 60 minutes of active play daily, but more is better. This doesn’t need to be structured—free play that involves movement counts. Breaking activity into multiple shorter periods throughout the day is fine and often easier than one long stretch.

My toddler prefers fine motor activities and avoids physical play. Is this concerning?

Children often show preferences, and that’s usually normal. Encourage gross motor activities through their interests—if they like animals, play animal movement games. If they like cars, have races. If significant avoidance continues or they seem physically unable rather than uninterested, consult your pediatrician.

Can too much screen time affect motor development?

Yes. Time spent sitting and watching screens is time not spent moving. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting screen time for toddlers and ensuring screens don’t replace active play. See our guide on screen time for toddlers for more.

What if we don’t have outdoor space?

Indoor gross motor activities are possible—dancing, climbing on safe furniture, obstacle courses made from cushions, ball play with soft balls. Make regular trips to playgrounds, gyms, or indoor play spaces. Many communities have indoor play areas especially valuable during harsh weather.

Do I need to buy specialized motor development toys?

No. Balls, blocks, crayons, playdough, and household items provide everything needed. Many “developmental” toys marketed to parents offer no advantages over simple, open-ended materials. Save your money and invest in outdoor play opportunities instead.

How does motor development affect school readiness?

Significantly. Fine motor development affects writing, cutting, and manipulating classroom materials. Gross motor development affects sitting posture, playground participation, and physical classroom navigation. Both contribute to the attention and self-regulation needed for learning.

The Simple Truth About Motor Development

Motor development isn’t complicated. Children are biologically driven to develop their bodies through movement and manipulation. Your job isn’t to teach them—it’s to provide opportunities and get out of the way.

Let them play with playdough. Let them climb. Let them run. Let them make art. Let them practice doing things for themselves, even when it’s messy and slow. The motor development will happen naturally through the play children are driven to do.

The toddler squishing playdough at the kitchen table is preparing to write. The toddler running across the park is building the body they’ll use for life. The toddler struggling with buttons is developing independence. None of it looks like learning, but all of it is.

For more activities that support development, explore our guides on sensory play ideas, outdoor activities, and problem-solving skills. And for learning activities designed specifically for toddlers and preschoolers, check out the Kokotree app.