For adults, grasping is such an intuitive motion that it’s hard to remember when you had to work hard to pick up objects of different sizes, shapes, and weights. For your baby, grasping is a progressive skill that takes a few years to develop fully. Learn how to support your child as they go from reflexively grasping your finger to holding objects intentionally, with skill and precision. 

In this article:

• When do babies start grabbing and grasping things?
• How does grasping develop?
• When can children grasp a spoon or utensil?
• When can children grasp a crayon or pencil?
• When do children develop right- or left-handedness?
• Developmental concerns with grasping

When do babies start grabbing and grasping things?

Babies are born with a grasping reflex, also called the palmar grasp reflex, which is why your newborn may automatically grasp your finger when you place it in their palm. The ability to intentionally grasp an object develops later, most often around 4 to 6 months of age. At first your baby won’t be able to handle objects with control, so expect a lot of accidental dropping at this stage 🙃

As your baby continues to grow and practice their fine motor skills, they will learn to grasp objects in different ways (around 4 to 9 months), pass objects from hand to hand (around 5.5 to 9 months) and let go of objects intentionally (around 9 to 10 months). Through practicing all these skills, your baby gradually develops more control over their hands. Eventually they’ll be able to feed themselves with a spoon (around 10 to 12 months), scribble with a crayon (around 18 months) and, one day, hold a pencil to write their name (around age 4).

How does grasping develop?

Newborns’ hands are often closed up in fists, but your baby will begin to open their hands over the first month of life. By 2 to 3 months of age, they’ll “discover” their hands, and may even become fascinated with looking at them.

Up to about 4 months of age, your baby may reach for objects—or bat at them with their hands—without being able to grasp yet. But by 4 to 6 months, your baby may be able to reach for an object with both hands and grasp it for a moment or two. Success 🙂 (Be aware: As soon as your baby is able to hold things, they’ll likely want to put everything straight into their mouth.) Around this same age, your baby may begin to grasp their feet when they lie on their back.

As your baby continues to develop their grasping skills, they learn how to use their fingers in different ways. Initially they use a raking grasp to pick up small objects (around 5 to 9 months). With more practice, your baby will develop a pincer grasp, in which they use the pads of their fingers and thumb to pick up a small item with more precision (around 10 to 12 months). 

Here’s an overview of what to watch for as grasping skills emerge and develop. Read on for further details about each stage of your baby’s grasp development, as well as ways to encourage your baby’s grasp, dexterity, and finger skills.

Grasp development timeline:

• Palmar grasp reflex, or reflexively grasping an object placed in their palm (0 to 4 months)
• Reaching toward objects, not yet grasping (2 to 4 months)
• Grasp and explore objects with their whole hands, often dropping unintentionally (4 to 6 months)
• Use a raking grasp to try to pick up a small object (5 to 9 months) 
• Pass an object from one hand to the other (6 to 9 months)
• Radial digital grasp: Grasp with thumb against side of hand (8 to 10 months)
• Voluntary release: Let go of an object on purpose (9 to 10 months)
• Pincer grasp: Grasp a small object with the pads of their fingers and thumb (10 to 12 months)
• Skilled precision grasps: Fingertip pincer grasp and tripod grasp (13 to 24 months)
• Advanced pincer grasping skills (19 to 24 months)
• In-hand manipulation skills, such as changing grasps or maneuvering objects in the hand (24 to 36 months)

Palmar grasp reflex, or reflexively grasping an object placed in their palm (0 to 4 months)

At birth, your baby has limited control of their hands, and many of their hand movements are reflexive. One of the many reflexes babies are born with is the palmar grasp reflex: When you put an object (or your finger) into their palm, they automatically grasp it. You also may have noticed how strong this grip is—sometimes they don’t want to let you go ❤️ 

Newborns keep their hands in loose fists much of the time, but between 2.5 and 3.5 months, your baby’s hands will start to open up. Here are some ways to help encourage your baby to open their hands:

• Stroke the back of their hands and see if they open their fist
• Gently uncurl their fingers and thumb
• Rub or pat their hands together, or pat their hand on your hand
• Let them touch and pat your face

Reaching toward objects, not yet grasping (2 to 4 months)

In this stage of development, your baby is learning about their hands and how to move them with a bit more intention. They may not yet be able to grasp an object, but they might try to move their arm and bat at objects they see.

You can support your baby’s learning by giving them lots of practice batting at the safe dangling objects in The Play Gym:

• Place your baby on their back with their chest in line with the dangling Batting Ring.
• Babies around 1 to 3 months will often start to wave their arms around when they see a toy. See if their hands and arms accidentally make contact with the ring or move their arms to show what happens
• The Batting Ring is especially helpful, since it’s the right height for accidental contact and makes a sweet noise at the slightest touch

Once your baby has discovered their hands and how they move, they may begin to bring them to their mouth. Try putting your baby in a side-lying position so their hands naturally come together in front of their face. Until they learn to reach for and grasp objects, their hands are their first toys.During their first year, babies need a lot of experience mouthing safe objects, which can include anything from nontoxic playthings to their thumbs, hands, feet, and teething toys. Oral exploration, or mouthing, helps babies learn about the physical properties of the world around them and build fine motor and hand-eye coordination.  

Whole hand grasps for exploring objects with their hands (4 to 6 months)

At around 4 to 6 months, when their hand-eye coordination advances, your baby will likely start to reach, grasp, and mouth more intentionally. During this stage, your baby is still gaining control over their hands and grasping ability, and they may only be able to grasp an object for a moment or two before dropping it.

For young babies who are still working on learning to control their hands, offering simple toys that are easy to grab can support their grasping skills. Here’s what your baby’s grasp might look like at this stage:

Grasp without thumb helping

Picking up an object without the help of your thumb is challenging! You can grasp an object, but there isn’t much you can do with it other than let it go, perhaps into a large open container. Initially, your baby’s whole-hand grasp will likely secure objects on the pinky side of their palm, also called a crude palmar grasp. As your baby’s whole-hand grasp develops, you might notice a subtle change, where your baby holds objects toward the thumb side of the palm. 

Grasp with thumb helping

In this grasp, sometimes called a radial palmar grasp, your baby’s thumb is separate from the rest of their hand, allowing the webbing between the thumb and hand to open. This allows your baby to hold a spherical object, like a wooden ball. Your baby’s radial palmar grasp will likely develop by around 6 months.

As your baby starts to use their thumb for grasping, you can offer activities that encourage holding items in different ways—the knob of a chunky puzzle, baby-safe small balls, or different-size cups (like the Nesting Stacking Dripdrop Cups).

These whole hand grasps will become your child’s life-long “power grasps.” Later, your baby’s whole hand grasp will progress to allow activities like carrying a bucket of sand, throwing a ball, opening a doorknob, or pulling open the refrigerator door. 

Raking grasp: Use a raking grasp to try to pick up a small object (5 to 9 months) 

As their grasp progresses, your baby may start to become more interested in trying to pick up small objects—small pieces of soft solid food, for example. At this point, your baby will probably use a raking grasp to scoop objects toward them with their fingers, since they haven’t fully developed a more precise grasp using their thumbs yet. 

Play that involves grasping and pulling can help your baby strengthen the tiny muscles in their hands that they will need for more precise grasping skills. Try encouraging your baby to pull the Magic Tissues from the Magic Tissue Box, or to pull wipes out of the wipe container. Although they may struggle at first, all this grasping and pulling is helping build your baby’s fine motor skills.

Pass an object from one hand to the other (6 to 9 months)

By around 6 to 9 months of age, your baby may be able to pass an object from one hand to another. This seems like a simple task, but it actually involves significant motor planning—which is when your baby executes a series of steps to make a movement—as well as fine motor skills. Your baby has to hold onto an object, bring it to their midline, and then time the release to pass it to the other hand. This hand-to-hand transfer skill helps your baby coordinate both hands together for later skills like clapping.

Radial digital grasp (8 to 10 months)

At around 8 to 10 months of age, your baby may develop a radial digital grasp in which the pads of their fingers trap an object against the pad of their thumb. The radial digital grasp is a progression from their previous whole hand grasp, since your baby is now holding objects with their fingers instead of their fist.

You may also observe your baby using their thumb to trap small objects against the side of their index finger. Because of the open and shut pinching motion, this is called a scissor grasp.

All the fine motor developments your baby has practiced so far will lead them toward the most refined grasp, the pincer grasp.

Voluntary release: Let go of an object on purpose (9 to 10 months)

During this phase, your baby may begin to experiment with letting go of objects from their grasp. Again, this is a movement that seems easy, but it takes quite a lot of practice for your baby to learn how to let go of objects intentionally. 

You may see your baby dropping items while they learn this voluntary release skill, including food from their high chair. While it’s understandably exasperating to pick up after your baby has cheerfully dropped handfuls of their lunch onto the floor, voluntarily releasing their grasp on an object is an important milestone in your baby’s grasp development. 

Here’s how to support voluntary release in a positive way:

• If they aren’t yet releasing objects voluntarily, you can gently tap, rub, or stroke the back of your baby’s hand to encourage them to open their fingers and let go. 
• Give them a kitchen pot and wood blocks to drop into it. The satisfying sound the blocks make when they hit the bottom will inspire them to continue. At first, your baby may release objects into a container like a kitchen pot by resting their wrist on the container’s edge. They’ll gradually advance to being able to release objects into a container from above without making contact.
• The Ball Drop Box is also a great tool for practicing this emerging skill.

Pincer grasp (10 to 12 months)

With the pincer grasp, your baby starts to use the pads of their index finger and thumb to grasp a small object, the way you might hold a piece of paper to pull it out of a stack. 

Self-feeding can be a great way to develop the pincer grasp. At this stage, small objects can be choking hazards, so offering finger foods to pick up and eat is one of the safe ways to practice.

More fun ways to encourage your baby’s pincer grasp: 

• Use a muffin tin to serve baby-safe snacks and place a piece in each section. Picking up the food item out of the muffin tin will encourage your baby to use a precise pincer grasp.
• Let your baby explore ways of holding the Stainless Steel Jingle Keys. You can model how to use two fingers to pinch a single key, then slide it back and forth along the metal key ring, then let your baby try.

And be sure to keep up the floor play and tummy time: Your baby’s core strength, shoulder strength, and stability will support development of their fine motor skills. 

Skilled precision grasps (13 to 18 months)

As your baby grows into a toddler, they continue to refine their precision grasp. Here’s what your toddler’s grasp might look like at this stage: 

Fingertip pincer grasp (13 to 24 months): Your child can grasp items fingertip to thumb-tip (the way you might pick up a grain of rice) with their ring and pinky finger folded into their palm.

3 finger tripod grasp (13 to 24 months): Your child can grasp an item between their thumb and the tips of their pointer, middle, and ring fingers. This will eventually become a writing tool grasp, but it starts on objects like the pegs of the Community Garden Puzzle. Using the tripod grasp during play is a great way to set the foundation for a good pencil grasp.

At this stage, there are many fun activities you can do with your toddler to support their fine motor skills, especially grasping. All these activities can set them on a path for eventually learning to scribble, write, and draw.

Sticker play to refine grasping and fine motor skills:

Playing with stickers is an easy way to work on grasping, bilateral coordination, visual scanning, hand-eye coordination and more. Try these variations on playing with stickers to support your toddler’s grasp development:

• Draw large dots on a piece of paper. Encourage your toddler to place a sticker on top of each dot. 
• After your toddler places a sticker on the paper, encourage them to use a crayon to scribble around the sticker. It is okay to model this and provide assistance when necessary. 
• Use painter’s tape to secure a piece of paper to a wall. Have your child stand or sit on a stool while placing stickers on paper. 

Learn more ideas for dot sticker play as a way to foster fine motor skills. As a reminder, be sure to supervise and clean up any loose, small parts.

Advanced pincer grasping skills (19 to 24 months)

As your toddler approaches their second birthday, they’re learning to use their grasping skills for more daily tasks such as eating with utensils, using crayons, and maybe even opening doorknobs. Supporting the development of these skills will help them be better able to eventually feed and dress themselves. 

Although your toddler has been using a pincer grasp for a while, it’s a good idea to keep practicing it. This grasping skill will help them develop the finger strength needed for later handwriting skills.

Pincer grasp activities for toddlers:

• The Mosaic Button Board is great for building dexterity and hand strength.
• Building with blocks is an opportunity to practice stacking and fine motor skills. Between 18 and 22 months, your toddler will likely be able to build a tower with four blocks. Then, by about age 2, they may build a tower with up to six blocks. 
• Using play tweezers to transfer objects from one container to another is a classic Montessori activity most toddlers naturally love. Put chopped vegetables or the Felt Stars into one of the Nesting Cups and show your toddler how to use the Transfer Tweezers to transfer the items from one cup to another. 

READ NOW: The pincer grasp is not just for babies

In-hand manipulation skills (24 to 36 months)

Around 2 to 3 years of age, your toddler will develop more advanced, in-hand manipulation skills as their hands gradually become larger and stronger. With the development of their hand dexterity, strength, sensory awareness, and motor planning, your child’s ability to change grasps and manipulate objects in their hands begins to emerge. 

These skills allow for movements like flipping a pencil around to the eraser end, isolating a key on a key chain with one hand to unlock the door when your hands are full, moving a single coin from a collection of coins in your palm to your fingertips, or picking several grapes off a bunch to hold them in your hand. 

When can children grasp a spoon or utensil?

Around 10 to 12 months, your baby may be ready to feed themselves with a spoon—but from their earliest taste of food, your baby can be an active participant in holding and moving the spoon, with a bit of help from you. 

At first, your baby may use the spoon more as a toy than a utensil. That’s okay—all practice at manipulating the spoon and learning how to work it with their hands is a good start.  

How to help your baby use a spoon:

Use a spoon that matches your baby’s grasping skills. A short, chunky handle is easier to manipulate with a whole hand grasp than a long, thin, flat spoon handle. Longer handled spoons work well if your baby needs physical help to load or transport a spoon to their mouth. 

Preload the spoon. Teach your baby how to eat from a preloaded spoon: Dip the spoon into the food, then show them how to bring it to their mouth, placing your hand over theirs to help guide the way. You may also want to put your hand over your baby’s after a bite to prevent utensil flinging—although some spoon-dropping is to be expected 🙃

Offer utensil play. Give your baby opportunities to handle a spoon during playtime, perhaps to scoop and dump water during bath time, or to scoop and dump items in a baby-safe sensory bin. Your baby will learn to hold and maneuver a spoon and will likely try mouthing it as well. 

Model what to do. Include your child at family meals. Serving yogurt? Have some, too. Modeling use of utensils can give your toddler additional motivation to use utensils independently. Toddlers learn a lot through observation.

Serve thick textures. Bringing a spoon to your mouth just to have the food fall off is frustrating. When your toddler is ready, you can preload the spoon with a thicker puree and allow them to bring it to their mouth. Once they become more proficient, give your toddler the opportunity to dip or scoop a small amount of food from a bowl. 

If your toddler is struggling to use eating utensils properly (and neatly), don’t worry. It may take a lot of practice for your toddler to master the use of utensils. Some children don’t consistently use a fork properly until they’re 3 or older—and what adults consider “fork foods” are commonly served as finger foods for toddlers, so to them, using a fork to eat can feel inefficient. 

When can children grasp a crayon or pencil?

Your child may be ready to try using crayons around 11 to 18 months of age. Your toddler’s use of crayons may not look like how you remember from your elementary-school days—the notion of coloring and using a tool to draw is all new to your toddler. They also haven’t developed a pencil grip (also known as dynamic tripod grasp), which doesn’t develop until about 4 to 6 years of age. But that doesn’t mean your toddler can’t explore how to use crayons for drawing and making marks on paper. 

What to expect when toddlers use crayons

They may only color for a brief moment. Your toddler may only want to draw for a moment or two, or may have no interest in coloring at all. Right now, it’s all about the process, not the result—and the process may involve repeated offers before they engage. You can put a few crayons and a piece of paper out on a low table, and see what they do with them. They may also be more likely to try if you sit and draw with them ❤️

They’ll tap and scribble. There are two main kinds of marks you’ll likely see from your toddler at first: small taps on the page and big marks and scribbles. Right now, it’s all about large, sweeping, gross motor arm movements, not the fine motor coloring and writing that comes much later.

They’ll hold a crayon with their whole hand. Initially your toddler may use a whole hand grasp to hold the crayon, and may switch which hand they color with. That’s okay at this stage of fine motor skill development. Just allow them to explore how a crayon works and the amount of pressure they need to apply to make a mark. 

They’ll put things in their mouth. Coloring at this age is likely to involve a lot of mouthing, so be sure to closely supervise your child while they draw, and use writing utensils large enough not to be a choking hazard. Mouthing typically starts to diminish by age 2 but can last until your child is close to their third birthday. It’s frustrating, but they do this because they’re still learning so much from their mouth.

How to encourage the development of a strong pencil grip

Holding a pencil is yet another one of those skills that develops through steps and stages. At 11 to 18 months, your toddler may be moving from a fisted grip toward one that uses the strength of their fingers and thumb to control a crayon or other writing utensil.

This “digital-pronate” grasp strengthens the muscles of their thumb and fingers, eventually moving them toward the classic pencil grip—the tripod grasp. You can encourage this pre-writing grip by offering your toddler the right tools and some simple art and sensory experiences to go with them. 

Squishy sponges: The squishiness of a small sponge encourages your toddler to use a firm grip, pinching with their fingers and thumb. 

Try this: Make soap foam before bath time by combining 1/2 cup bath gel or bubble bath with 1/4 cup water and mixing with a hand mixer until it gets thick and forms peaks. Cut a sponge into 1- to 2-inch strips or other shapes. Show your toddler how they can smear soap foam on the side of the tub, and then “draw” on their soapy canvas with their sponges.

Crayon bits: Broken pieces of a crayon, crayon blocks, and Crayon Rocks are too small to grip with a closed fist. Your toddler will figure out how to use their fingers and thumb to scribble with these unconventional crayon shapes.

Try this: A big piece of paper taped to the floor or a wall with a few of these small crayons gives your toddler a chance to build finger, elbow, and shoulder strength as they move their whole arm to make their mural. 

Safety note: Small items such as broken crayons and pieces of sponge can be choking hazards. Please be sure to supervise your toddler at all times when using these materials and put them safely away when play is done. 

When do children develop right- or left-handedness?

At first, some babies will use one hand more than the other as they reach and grasp food, crayons, or toys, while other babies use both hands interchangeably. Both are perfectly okay. When hand dominance becomes more concrete, usually between 2 to 4 years of age, one hand will typically serve as “dominant” and be active and more efficient while the other “non-dominant” hand will serve as a helper for many daily tasks.

Developmental concerns with grasping

Each baby develops along their own developmental path. Age estimates for milestones like grabbing and grasping are based on averages of thousands of children—so your child’s development may be slightly different. 

If your child doesn’t show an interest in reaching or grasping for objects by the time they are 6 months of age, consult your pediatrician. By this stage, the majority of babies are bringing their hands together at their midline and putting their hands or toys in their mouth. If you have any concerns about your child’s grasping or grabbing skills, bring them to your pediatrician. They can fully assess all aspects of your child’s development.