First, ask your child's special education teacher and occupational therapist (OT) for suggestions on things you can try at home that will work well with what he is doing in school. If your child does not have occupational therapy services, consider requesting an IEP team meeting to request an OT evaluation to determine if he may benefit from those services.

Fine motor skills are important in handwriting, keyboarding, and a multitude of vocational studies. Children with learning disabilities in basic writing can benefit from activities and games that develop fine motor skills. Check out these fun ways to develop your child's fine motor skills.

• Make hand shadows with thisfree hand shadows booklet from Project Gutenberg. Learn hand shadow techniques with this About.com video. We have a blast with hand shadow puppets at our house.

  For even more fun with language skills, use hand shadows to act out your child's favorite stories. For children with limited fine motor skills, make these fun cardboard roll finger puppets.

• Have fun acting out stories from your child's favorite books using hand shadows or finger puppets. Explore new story books recommended for your child's age.
• Teach your child basic handwriting skills with a multisensory tactile writing tray.
• Many typical toys and games help develop fine motor skills such as Jenga (a block tower building game), checkers, puzzles, playing cards are just a few.
• Find fun family crafts that do double duty in strengthening fine motor skills like these:
  • This "Out Like a Lamb" children's craft for March helps develop fine motor skills such as grasping, placing, and squeezing.
  • For older kids, try these computer activities that embed fine motor skills.