Using scissors seems so simple once you’re an adult, doesn’t it? You pick them up, cut along the line, and you barely think about what your hands are doing.
For little hands, though, there’s actually quite a lot going on.
They’re opening and closing the scissors, holding the paper with the other hand, turning it as they cut, watching where the line goes and trying to keep everything coordinated at the same time. Children’s occupational therapy resources describe scissor use as a skill that takes time to develop because it involves both hands, hand-eye coordination and controlled finger movements.
That’s also why I don’t think scissor practice needs to look perfect straight away.
At home, I’ve found it’s much easier to think of cutting as something children gradually build confidence with rather than something they suddenly “know how to do”.
Start with the really simple stuff
Before cutting around dinosaurs, koalas or elaborate shapes, it can help to start with basic snipping.
Occupational therapy guidance recommends progressing from simple opening and closing of the scissors, to short snips, then cutting forwards, following lines and eventually cutting around shapes.
That might look like:
- snipping strips of paper
- cutting the edge of a piece of card
- chopping little pieces off a playdough sausage
- cutting along a thick straight line
- moving on to curves and zigzags
- eventually trying simple pictures or cut-and-paste activities
The beauty of this is that the early stages don’t need to be pretty.
If your child cuts completely off the line or turns a rectangle into a mysterious new shape, that’s still practice 😂
The scissors themselves can make a difference
One thing I hadn’t really thought about at first is that the scissors matter too.
Choose scissors that suit your child’s hand, with rounded ends and blades that are sharp enough to cut the material properly, and always supervise.
Left-handed children may also find proper left-handed scissors much easier to use.
If the scissors are constantly folding the paper instead of cutting it, even I’d get annoyed after five minutes 😂
So sometimes a child struggling with cutting isn’t necessarily struggling with the skill itself. The tools might just be making the job unnecessarily difficult.
Try the “thumbs up” position
A simple cue you might hear from occupational therapists is “thumbs up”.
The basic idea is that the thumb stays on top while holding the scissors, and the hand holding the paper also stays in a comfortable thumbs-up position.
It gives children a simple visual reminder without turning the activity into a twenty-minute hand-position lesson.
And if they don’t get it perfectly every time?
That’s okay. They’re learning.
Scissor skills can start without scissors
This was one of the more interesting things I found while looking into scissor development.
Activities such as tearing paper, using pegs or tongs, threading, building, and playing with playdough can all help children practise the hand strength and two-handed coordination involved in cutting.
So if your child isn’t especially interested in scissors yet, you don’t necessarily need to force a cutting activity.
There are plenty of other ways those little hands can practise.
Make cutting feel like play
This is probably my biggest one.
If I hand my girls a plain page covered in cutting lines, sometimes they’ll do it.
Sometimes they absolutely will not. 😂
But give them an animal to cut out, something to glue together or an activity with a purpose at the end, and suddenly it feels completely different.
That’s one of the reasons I love creating cut-and-paste printables.
Instead of the goal being:
“Practise your scissor skills.”
The goal becomes:
“Let’s cut out the koala.”
The fine-motor practice is still happening, but it’s tucked inside something that feels more like play.
You don’t need to rush the harder shapes
Cutting around curves, circles and detailed pictures asks much more of a child than making a few snips across a strip of card.
Occupational therapy guidance generally recommends building from easier cuts toward more complex ones gradually, with straight lines before curves and simple shapes before detailed figures.
So if your child happily chops through paper but suddenly struggles when you give them a complicated picture, that doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t use scissors.
The activity might simply be a few steps ahead of where they’re comfortable.
You can always go back to something easier and try again later.
Most importantly, let it be imperfect
I think sometimes we adults accidentally turn simple activities into tiny performance reviews.
Did they stay on the line?
Did they hold the scissors properly?
Did they cut the whole picture out?
But especially when children are first learning, the wonky cuts are part of it.
The goal doesn’t have to be a beautifully cut-out picture.
The goal can simply be that they gave it a go, practised the movement and felt confident enough to try again.
And if the end result looks nothing like the original shape?
Stick it on the fridge anyway. 😂✂️
Looking for a little cutting practice?
I’ve been working on more hands-on cutting activities for Hazel & Fern Printables, including animal-themed cut-and-paste pages designed to give children plenty of opportunities to practise snipping, straight lines, curves and simple shapes.
I always try to make them feel like an activity first and “practice” second, because that tends to work much better in our house too. 🤎
Sources & further reading
I used guidance from children’s occupational therapy services while putting this article together:
https://www.bedslutonchildrenshealth.nhs.uk/child-development-and-growing-up/hand-skills/scissor-skills
https://childrenandfamilyhealthdevon.nhs.uk/resources/scissor-skills-pre-scissor-activities-and-types-of-scissors
P.S if you like the Kookaburra Scissors printable you see above then then have a look below at my latest Australian Animals Scissors Pack below:
Australian Animals Scissors Pack- Click Here to view
Or if you would prefer a non Australian Animals then click the link below for my normal Scissors Pack:
Scissors Activity Pack- Click Here
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Hazel & Fern Printables🌿
(Formerly Known as Sketch Ink Studios)
Printable Learning through everyday life.
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