Pinch, Pinch a Rainbow

I was looking at paint samples over the weekend and all of those pretty colors got my wheels turning!  I stopped by the dollar store and picked up a $1 pizza pan and some clothespins.  A hot glue gun and 15 minutes later, I had a colorful rainbow wheel to use with my preschool students!

Besides the fact that I love COLOR, my primary purpose was actually to get my kiddos practicing their 3-finger grasp with clothespins.  Pinching the clothespin strengthens fingers and helps to develop a 3-finger grasp that's important for writing skills. 

This was such a simple game to make and the children loved it! They worked together to match the colors and clip all of the clothespins.  There could be lots of other variations on this game too---besides colors, you could match letters, numbers or sight words.  Whatever the theme, just keep pinchin'!!

Jen Dermody, OTR/L 

Fuzzy Ball Fix

I have a 2nd grade student who has looooong challenged me for trying to correct his pencil grasp.  He holds the pencil with all of his fingers on the pencil and it is a super INefficient grasp!  Looks like this:

When I give him assist to correct it, he INSISTS that it "hurts", trying to describe that it feels funny for him to hold it any other way.  If I can catch him in a cooperative mood, he does well with my "fuzzy ball" game.  I give him a small fuzzy ball that he places in his palm and holds in place with his 4th and 5th finger.  He "wins" if the fuzzy ball is still in his palm when he finishes his writing. 

Keep in mind that the pencil  is a little too upright in the picture ---this was when he first picked up the pencil---I had another picture a moment later with the pencil positioned down a bit more but unfortunately the picture didn't save!  This little guy's teacher is on board with trying to help him correct his grasp consistently.  I gave her a couple of fuzzy balls to use with this student and any others she thinks could use it (also helps this student to not feel singled out).  I'm going to set up a chart where he'll earn a sticker for each targeted time he uses the fuzzy ball for writing and have him earn a little prize of some sort. 

Besides a fuzzy ball, you could use just about anything little to place in the palm of the hand---a bead, a little ball of paper, or a cute little eraser like these:

Consistency is key!  Teachers and parents who encourage their students to practice everyday will surely see improvement!

Jen Dermody, OTR/L

Get a GRIP! [part 2]

"What can I do to FIX that?!"   That's the question I get a lot at this time of year as kids head back to school and teachers meet their new students who hold a pencil with all sorts of "funky" grasps.  As you read in my earlier post "Get a Grip! part 1", the goal is to have students hold a pencil or crayon with an efficient grasp that minimizes hand fatigue.  Most commonly, this will be a 3-finger grasp with adequate wrist extension (roughly 30 degrees extension at the wrist instead of having the wrist flexed forward and curled down).  If you took a look at pencil grasps this week, you probably know that LOTS of kids do indeed have "funky" grasps.  So how CAN you fix this?  I've got a SUPER EASY solution for you! Start by breaking all of those new crayons you just bought for back to school.  I know this can put some people over the edge....who doesn't LOVE a brand new box of crayons?!   While brand new crayons ARE a joy of back to school, using small pieces of crayons will be a quick fix for kiddos who have less than efficient grasps. 

You'll see that some of the pieces are pretty small but small is fantastic for correcting grasps!  Give it a try~~when you use a small piece of crayon, it FORCES you to use an efficient 3-finger grasp. 

 

The same idea can be accomplished with very small pieces of chalk on the chalkboard or with sidewalk chalk.  I used to joke that my kids would be so surprised when they got to school and saw that new crayons are so "big"!  

I found these cute little stacking crayons in the dollar bin at Target.  It's a stack of bunny heads and you can stack them or take them apart and color with each individually.  They are small but the kids love coloring with the bunnies. You can find similar stacking pencils for kids to use for writing too.  The dollar store is usually  a great place to look!

I hope you'll give this a try : )  Using small crayons and pencils helps ALL children with fine motor development but especially those with poor grasp patterns.  I recommend this to early childhood teachers who are "on the front line" for a child's fine motor development.  Poor patterns form early so providing kids with techniques and tools early will lead to a happy writer down the road!

Jen Dermody, OTR/L 

Get a GRIP! [part 1]

It's already a busy start to the school year!  Students are trying to get back into a good school day routine with some help from parents and teachers.  As you review skills from the previous year, please pay attention to your students' pencil grasp and help them correct it if needed.  Learning to use an efficient 3-finger grasp will help to decrease hand fatigue and improve overall legibility of written work.  A 3-finger, or "tripod" grasp looks like this:

Examples of inefficient grasps would include a fisted grasp.... 

or a thumb wrap grasp.

These 2 examples are inefficient because they will quickly lead to hand fatigue and also decrease control needed for letter formation, coordination, and legibility.  HABITS FORM QUICKLY!!  Believe me, there are LOTS of kids who already have strong grasp pattern habits formed before they ever enter kindergarten. Breaking those habits is really, really difficult and sometimes seems impossible.   It's important to train children to use an effective grasp when they are old enough to hold a pencil so that they can be successful writers as they get older.

 For the next couple of days, I'm asking you to take note of your kiddos' pencil grip and notice if it is an efficient 3-finger grip or some other inefficient grip.  Check back for part 2 of "Get a Grip!" so that you can learn some simple methods to teach a proper grip and/or remediate to correct a grip that needs some improvement.  I think you'll find that there are some simple ways to help your kids!

Jen Dermody, OTR/L