Increasing fine motor abilities during toddlerhood result from refinements in reaching, grasping, and manipulating small objects.The average 18-month-old can make a tower of four blocks. Just 1 year
later, with practice and improved control, he or she can stack eight blocks (Fig. 2). Most 18-montholds
have developed an interest in crayons and, if given the opportu-nity, will hold the crayon in a fist
and scribble spontaneously on paper (or anywhere else). Only 1.5 years later, the toddler has developed the control and sophistication to pick up a crayon by placing the thumb at the left and fingers at the right of the shaft and make a circle; by age 3, the child even may begin to draw a primitive stick figure.