Motor skills

Scissor Skills

Also called: cutting skills, scissor practice

Scissor skills are the sequence of cutting abilities children develop between ages three and six, progressing from snipping to straight lines, then curves, then cutting out shapes.

The progression is reliable enough to use as a checklist: snipping the edge of paper (age 3), cutting across a short strip, cutting a straight line, cutting a wavy line, cutting a zigzag, and finally cutting out a closed shape such as a circle or star (age 5–6).

Skipping steps is the usual cause of frustration. A child handed a shape to cut out before they can follow a straight line will produce a mangled result and conclude they are bad at it.

Printables that practise this

Common questions

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