Is your child having a hard time holding and brushing own teeth? Do you want to help your child develop his or her fine motor skills needed for toothbrushing?
Here in this post I listed 6 tooth brushing activities you can do with your child. I have also included free printables to make your life easy. All you need to do is PRINT 🙂
We all know that teaching our children about proper dental hygiene is important. But do not worry, this post isn’t about proper dental hygiene. I’m not a dentist, but what I can share with you in this post is by giving you 6 tooth brushing activities that you can do to help your child develop and strengthen their fine motor skills that is needed for tooth brushing.
So whether your child is 18 months or 48+ months old, these activities will be fun to practice toothbrushing to develop their fine motor skills needed.
The Best 6 Tooth Brushing Activities
1. Create a Self-Care Station
At around 18 months, your child becomes more independent therefore, now it is the perfect time to encourage your child to take part in the tooth brushing routine. Help them develop the skill by letting him or her have a go first before your follow up to make sure everything has been cleaned.
Creating a self-care station for your toddler will bring so many wonderful benefits to his or her development.
Having access to a toothbrush, gives your child an opportunity to coordinate hand and eye movements to perform actions. At age 16-36 months, you child uses hand-eye coordination when participating in routines, to name a few, hair brushing, toothbrushing, hand washing.
2. Brushing an Apple
Help your child develop dexterity and control holding the toothbrush by brushing an apple.
You will need:
- toothbrush
- an apple
- bin with water
How to:
Simply give your child an apple to wash using a toothbrush to brush the apple.
3. Use a Doll or Stuffed Animal to Pretend to Brush Teeth
This is a pretty great make-believe play activity that your child will enjoy.
You will need:
- Toothbrush
- Doll or Stuffed Animal
How to:
Have your child choose his or her favorite doll or stuffed animal to pretend to brush the dolls teeth.
4. White Board Tooth Brushing Activity
I have seen this activity all over Pinterest and this one is a win for my toddler. Your child will love this activity too. It will encourage your child to brush off that dirty tooth.
You will need:
- white board
- dry erase marker
- toothbrush
How to:
Draw a big tooth on the white board. I added a smiley face to make it more fun. Use the dry erase marker to color the tooth or color is some dirty spots.
Hand it over to your child with the toothbrush and let him or her brush off the dirties.
5. Paint a Tooth
Ditch the paintbrush and paint with a toothbrush!
You will need:
- precut tooth shape
- paint
- tooth brush
How to:
We purchased the precut tooth shape but you can simply use white paper and outline a tooth or use this free printable.
Hand it over to your child with the toothbrush and paint and let him or her paint the tooth using the tooth brush.
Your child will have so much fun painting!
6. Sing Songs
Singing songs while your child brushes own teeth will encourage and motivate them to brush their own teeth. Tooth brushing does’t have to be boring, make it fun with these songs all you need to do is print them out and sing to your child.
Our favorite toothbrushing songs are down below along with the Free Printables 🙂
Read more on Children’s Oral Health
*We sing this song before brushing teeth.
*We sing this song after tooth brushing.
*We sing this song during toothbrushing.
