The “Rainbow Trick”: A Simple Fine-Motor Tip for Little Hands 🌈

Contributor: Ashley Morawski, MOT, OTR/L, BCP, CFT

(Owner of Tiny Tots Therapy)

One of my favorite games to use in play-based therapy is a simple tweezing activity — and the reason I love it so much is that it sneaks in so many skill-builders at once. Especially fine motor development.

If you’re introducing tweezers to your toddler for the first time, here’s a little tip that makes a big difference:

We want the arch — or the “rainbow” — of the tweezers pointed up to the sky.

When the rainbow is facing up, it naturally encourages your child’s fingers to stay lower on the tool. That helps them use what’s called a tripod pinch — using the thumb, index, and middle finger together. This grasp is an important foundation for later skills like writing, feeding themselves, and manipulating small objects.

“But my child holds it like a fist…”

Totally normal.

You might notice your child flipping the tweezers around or holding them with their whole fist. That usually just means their finger strength and dexterity are still developing. And that’s okay! Early attempts don’t have to look perfect. With practice and playful exposure, their hand control will grow over time.

Picking up tiny treasures

In this game, children use tweezers to pick up little dinosaurs and drop them into matching containers. It’s playful, colorful, and secretly doing a lot of work behind the scenes.

If tweezers feel too tricky at first, no problem — you can always go back to using fingers. Encourage your child to use their “pinchers” (or as I sometimes call them, their “munchers”) to pick up small pieces. You can model this pincer grasp yourself so they can copy you.

Raking vs. pinching

If you see your child pulling objects into their palm using all their fingers together, that’s called a raking grasp. It’s a normal early grasp pattern, but over time we want to see more isolated finger control — either a pincer grasp or a tripod grasp — for picking up small items.

When should this skill show up?

Typically, we start seeing pincer grasp skills develop somewhere between 8 and 12 months, often when babies begin finger-feeding and picking up small bits of food from their tray.

By a couple of months after their first birthday, this skill should be more established. If your child is still having a hard time picking up small objects — especially ones that aren’t extremely tiny, like these toy pieces — it’s worth mentioning to your pediatrician. It doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong, but it’s always okay to check in when you have questions about development.

The big takeaway

Small hands grow strong through play. Simple games like tweezing tiny toys can build coordination, confidence, and independence — all while your child thinks they’re just having fun.

And sometimes, all it takes is remembering:

Rainbow up to the sky 🌈

For more guidance and if you have specific questions on your little one’s guidance, you can reach out to Ashley and her team at Tiny Tots Therapy.