Preschool Opportunities That Develop Into Handwriting
- Varied sensory exploration activities.
- Lots of time at an easel or chalk board.
- Spending time on the floor, with weight distributed through the shoulders (story time).
- Resistive play for the development of the hand (pushing scooters in PT, playdoh experiences).
Kindergarten Experiences
- Watch for the preferred hand to develop.
- Keep the easels as a station (to develop the shoulder muscles).
- Thicker, shorter pencils and crayons make the hand use a more efficient tripod grasp.
- How is the desk or table height?
- Place your elbow on the tabletop and rest your chin in your palm. if your chin is pointing upward, the desk is too high. If your chin is facing downward, the desk is too low. If your chin is facing forward, the desk height is just "write"!
- Be sure your students feet are firmly touching the ground when working at a table.
Readiness To Print
- Child has established handedness.
- Child can tell apart big and little lines or curves; child understands concepts up/down, start/stop.
- Student holds a pencil with an adequate grasp (ideal is the tripod with an open webspace).
- Child has sustained attention to pre-writing activities.
Suggested Methods To Teach Capital Letters
- Capital letters are easier because they are all the same height, all start at the top and all occupy the same vertical space.
- Teachers may demonstrate from the board or by using a small slate.
- Teach correct directionality from the start and monitor the student's work (in a small group the slate activity works well).
- When a student's letters are floating on the page, offer a single dark line for the letters to stand, each student needs time to find their own "letter height" (dependant on fingertip control).
- Keep paper at midline!
Hand Exercises To Increase Speed And Dexterity And Letter Formation For Elementary Students
Items needed: putty, 10 pennies, index cards, 10 paperclips, pencil, paper, margarine tub
- Roll putty into a snake. Pull off 10 pieces. Roll each piece into a small ball using thumb and 2 fingers. No cheating by using the table or other hand!
- Flatten all putty pieces and roll into a large ball. Rotate this ball in your fingertips (like the earth rotating on it's axis - repeat for 30 seconds each direction).
- Line up 10 pennies on the desktop. Flip them over quickly from left to right and return back to the left side.
- Put away the 10 pennies by picking up 3 and storing them in your hand by trapping them with your little finger. A 3 1/2 year old can do this. Then rotate each coin singly out to your pinch and place the penny into the slot of the margarine tub. Repeat until all pennies are stored in the bank. If 3 are easy, try holding 4 at a time.
- Write 10 letters or numbers along the borders of an index card. We want to challenge our student by having them quickly place a paperclip onto the correct letter or number, in sequence.
- Make an "OK" sign with your thumb and index finger. Link your fingers with a partner and play 5 tug-of-war games.
- Play dice games. Cupping the hand is very important to build the arches of the palm.
- Fingerspell the alphabet, having students practice their name, as a motor planning activity.
- Hold a pencil in your best writing grip and walk your tripod up and down the length of the pencil.
- Place 10 dots across a piece of paper. Quickly make a circle around each dot. Check your work for ovals. We want to develop greater distal control to form circles quickly.
- For younger students that are struggling with directionality of letters, use a tracing method where the student goes over your printing with a changeable marker. This is usually motivating. For the older student, try using a yellow or blue highlighter and let the student trace with this pencil.
- For difficulty learning spacing, give a visual cue by underlining 4 spaces per writing line, with a yellow highlighter. You will give your student a concrete place to put the words. Fade the spaces after one month and reassess.
For Elementary Students
Try software to increase hand speed, such as typing programs.
How To Know If A Student Needs Further Help?
Many younger students are presenting with immaturity of hand use. With practice and use of suggested exercises, children can develop greater skill. The students we see in occupational therapy generally have layers of neuroimmaturity to include visual-spatial disorganization, immature hand use along with low muscle tone. After a few months of practice they just aren't improving. It is appropriate to call in an Occupational Therapist to make an observation, to see if an evaluation is necessary. We always want to try and provide the simplest support first, to see if practice and maturity can impact fine motor skills.
I hope these suggestions have been helpful, and will bring some fun into your fine motor time.
Marget Wincent, OTR/L
Director
OT Outcomes
Resource
Handwriting Without Tears by Jan Olsen, OTR
8802 Quiet Stream Court
Potomac, MD 20854
|
