Our kids' teachers recommended they hold a cotton ball in their hand and then use the proper fingers to grip the pencil while the "unused" fingers hold the cotton ball
Also tons and tons of fine motor stuff---playdoh, Legos, bead stuff
If you want to just work on forming the letters properly, start gross motor...draw the letters big with sidewalk chalk, paint, in shaving cream or finger paint
Our school physiotherapist says tell the kids to have their arm on the table, make a gun (I'm not thrilled with the terminology), pinch like a little bird, roll the arm over to the paper. Like Lexus said, breaking crayons is good. Do you have an art easle? They are good for getting the body in the correct position.
Golf pencils, broken crayons, smaller, thinner is better. Lots of play dough and clay to strengthen fingers; beading, stringing and lacing for pincer grip and coordination.
Golf pencils, broken crayons, smaller, thinner is better. Lots of play dough and clay to strengthen fingers; beading, stringing and lacing for pincer grip and coordination.
I've been concerned about my DS1's lack of writing skills and this was exactly all the stuff that was recommended to me...especially the little golf pencils.
Do you do sign? I tell dd to use a "no" grip and not a "yes" grip. It helped her make the distinction. Broken crayons help too.
As far as making letters, we did them in shaving cream and sand and finger paints. I've helped dd (hand over hand) to make a few (e) but she can do most letters by herself now. She wasn't super interested until closer to 4 and picking out her own coloring books got her more interested in coloring.
Do you do sign? I tell dd to use a "no" grip and not a "yes" grip. It helped her make the distinction. Broken crayons help too.
As far as making letters, we did them in shaving cream and sand and finger paints. I've helped dd (hand over hand) to make a few (e) but she can do most letters by herself now. She wasn't super interested until closer to 4 and picking out her own coloring books got her more interested in coloring.
This is part of my problem, my kids aren't big colorers so they don't have a lot of practice holding and drawing. I have to force them more, I guess.
Instead of straight up coloring, if that doesn't pique their interest, what about magna doodles, aqua doodles, water wow books, color wonder? Maybe they'd have fun if they could use smelly markers?
I know play doh helps with the fine motor; maybe they'd like cutting, too?
Sounds a lot like my youngest son. I would reset his grip for a long time and practice drawing pictures or writing letters and numbers. He also seemed to have a very light/weak grip so I strengthened his grip by buying cutting worksheets, and using lots of play doh and clay. And we baked things like homemade cookies and I would have him mix the dough with his fingers...lol.
Our ecfe class has these kid pliers. The art teacher said it's great for building hand strength.
Chalk once it gets warmer.
Writing in salt or sand?
bath paints?
WE have a chalk wall on the back of our kitchen island, but all they ever do is lines and scribbles.
Have you tried asking them to draw a picture for you? Like a sun, person or a house. Wr bave an easel but i would draw a sun next to him and ask if he could draw one?
Oh i also used a highlighter and would write his name as a guide. He could trace highlighter letters. This worked really well.
Post by expectantsteelerfan on Mar 4, 2016 15:44:35 GMT -5
Hard to describe, but one of our preschool teachers taught us a trick to have them but their thumb and pointer finger together. You hold the pencil, and with the eraser toward you, put the point of the pencil against there their thumb and pointer meet. The keep the point there and rotate the pencil around so it's laying correctly and tell them to hold it that way.