Pencil Grip Training

This past summer has provided a perfect opportunity to teach pencil grip now that therapy sessions are back in person. During our session, my student worked on fine motor strengthening activities, placing pegs in modeling clay. Then he completed visual motor activities (connect the dot and mazes) using a silicone pencil grip and Handiwriter handwriting tool. Finally, practice without the grip. 
#Ready For School

Tiffany's Tips: fun core activities

 

Core strengthening does not only happen in therapy or at the gym. Try these fun core exercises for kids... 

⇨ On the playground activities: swinging from the monkey bars, climbing on jungle gym, and swinging (using legs to propel themselves).

⇨ After-school extracurricular activities: yoga, swimming, karate, and bike riding.

⇨ Jumping activities: playing hopscotch, jumping on a trampoline, and jumping rope. 

⇨ At home activities: crab walking, donkey kicks, wheelbarrow walking, and playing while squatting or kneeling.

Happy Juneteenth

Summer Virtual Summer Classes

It’s time for students to pick up  a pencil and paper and get ready to enter the school. This summer is the time to help your child refresh or develop the handwriting skills they will need prior to re-entering the school building this Fall. In class, your child will engage in fun hands-on multi-sensory motor activities to learn the fundamentals of …

• writing mechanics (capitalization and punctuation) 

• letter formation, size, and alignment

• word spacing

• pencil grip

From Shaving cream to play-doh, your child will experience the joy of writing. This camp will emphasize letter formation using the Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum for PRINTING or Loops and Other Groups to learn CURSIVE. Our goal is to equip children with the necessary tools to write with CONFIDENCE and EASE.    

DATES: Tuesdays and Thursdays (July 6th to July 29th)

TIMES: 4:30pm to 5:30pm CST

PLACE: Zoom (virtual summer classes are designed to meet your child's needs from the safety and comfort of your home)

Email to register and secure your child’s spot.

For more information contact us at 

writenow.reid@gmail.com 

Happy Mother's Day

 

JUSTICE

Tiffany's Tip: Wrist Positioning

Holding your wrist in a slightly extended position pulls the tendons that connect the wrist to the fingers. Therefore, an extended wrist position 

can also move the fingers easier, resulting in better finger control for handwriting.

Try these tips to improve wrist extension when holding a writing utensil…

⇨ rest hand on paper while writing on an easel
⇨ tape mazes and connect the dots activities to refrigerator door to complete
⇨ complete color pattern sheets while lying on the floor prop up on forearms
⇨ wheelbarrow walking, donkey kicks, crab walking
⇨ practicing writing patterns on a vertical surface

⇨ completing written task on a slant board  

April is OT month

 

More Remote Success

The above handwriting samples show an 8-year old boy's progress during remote therapy. 

 

Remote Shoe tying

Teaching shoe tying remotely, required some ingenuity. My client's father converted an amazon box into a training tool. In two zoom sessions, my client moved from the box to tying his own shoelaces independently.  

 

Before and After: Zoom

We have all overcome many challenges and changes in this uncertain world we now live in. Like toilet paper, pencil and paper are rarely seen, making it more and more important to continue the practice of handwriting with my clients. With all these changes, one thing that remains the same, my clients continue to thrive in therapy. They continue to soar beyond my expectations and will enter back in school buildings with better handwriting than before. Don't just take my word for it, you can see the proof for yourself.

The below before and after samples are from an 8-years old boy with Autism.  This progress was made over a 6 month period while on zoom. 

The below before and after samples are from a 7-year old boy who I never met face to face. We worked together via Zoom for FOUR 30 to 40 minute sessions. After 3 sessions, his mom texted me "his handwriting already looks so much better". 

The below before and after samples are from an 8-year old boy with ADHD. This past fall we meet outside for 4 in-person sessions. During these sessions, he was introduced to cursive and learned all the lower case letters.  We resumed therapy via Zoom in January of this year (1st sample).  He is now able to translate print into cursive without a model. As you can see he is very proud of the progress he made in just 3 months.

Thumb Wrap Pencil Grip

 

Does your child wrap their thumb around their pencil when writing or coloring? They may benefit from using the tripod trainer grip. To...

Reduce hand fatigue

Help give more control 

Encourage tripod pencil grip, which is the most functional grip for legible handwriting 

When beginning to use pencil grips to correct this grip, have your child start with coloring by number pictures or mazes to get them used to using the grip prior to handwriting.These will improve your child’s visual motor skills and fine motor skills. When utilizing the pencil grip you will see that your child develops more control of their writing utensil.

Here are two pencil grips I have found great success using...

cross over pencil grip