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Until she was about ten months old, Grace Power was happy to have her mother, Donna, spoon-feed her mashed-up veggies and cereal. Then she hit the ?me do it? stage. According to her mom, Grace?s obvious delight in using her thumb and finger to very precisely pick up chunks of banana and pop them into her mouth makes it worth the extra time (and sometimes mess) it takes to finish a meal.
That handy pincer grip is just one of the fine motor skills babies are expected to develop during their first year.
?People usually think of fine motor skills as the things a baby can do with his hands, but they are really broader than that,? says Joyce Magill-Evans, professor of occupational therapy at the University of Alberta. ?Fine motor skills allow our eyes to track objects, and our lips and tongues to form sounds and manage food.? A young baby, for example, won?t have the ability to transfer solid food from the front of his mouth to the back where it can be swallowed. Spoon in a taste of mashed banana, and he?ll just push it back out with his tongue. By six months or so, however, most babies can use their tongues to help them swallow the food.

The development of hand skills is more complex and usually follows a predictable pattern.
1. Reaching for mom?s face, mouth, jewellery or for toys or mobiles.
2. Grasping first as a reflex, when the fingers close when something touches your baby?s palm, but becoming more refined until your baby can pick up ...