pencil control

[katcatkat]

I am a long time lurker that has been learning from what other people have been saying for a while and wanted to know if anyone has advice.

DS 5years old has probable (in process for diagnosis) dyspraxia, verbal dyspraxia, hyper mobility and ADHD (I would not be surprised at ASD as well). He is very bright despite this and knows most of his phonics sounds and is starting to read. Problem is he cannot really hold a pencil at all he is only just achieving the most basic of drawings and even then he cannot put the pressure on the paper.

Over the summer i thought that maybe this was something that could be worked on and wondered if anyone had any suggestions on what we could to to help. does anyone have any suggestions on resources that would be good for him he has a very low attention span and his speech is getting there but still is not great.

Try theraputty - brilliant for strengthening muscles. Hide things like macaroni in it and he has to pick it out. Increase strength of putty as his hands grow stronger.

You can get rubber pencil grips which place fingers in the right position. No link, sorry, but google it.

Get him to do mark-making in sand, soil etc with stick. Also drawing on easel - strengthens shoulders (which in turn strengthens wrists/hands). Do lots of climbing on monkey bars for same reason.

Also things like lace threading if co-ordination (as well as strength) is a problem. Or small-piece puzzles to help with pincer grip. Might need some bribery encouragement to persevere with this kind of thing if attention is a problem!

My DS has poor pencil grip so we are strengthening his pincer grip by pegging clothes pegs along the edge of a blanket.

ds1 is v. similar with the added factor of no reliable hand dominance; it's a huge issue for us. I really would advise badgering for OT - took us 2 years but we finally have 6 sessions & ds has made great progress even after just four hours (we're carrying privately afterwards).

Theraputty is good - we hide small beads in it & he has to find as many as he can in a minute. Lots of rolling actions one hand at a time.
Giant tweezers - we use kids chopsticks like these www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004IL7QKY/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00 for transferring small objects (smarties) again as many as possible in 1 minute
writing/drawing on a mirror covered in shaving foam (also good for crossing midline)
lots & lots of gross motor work - specifically core strength & balance (swinging in hammock swing on tummy, crawling on tummy)
handwriting without tears for letter formation

Hand dominance could be part of the problem here as well
The ideas sound good just will have to think a bout how to work with the bits and stop him putting everything into his mouth.
Need to start badgering for OT (as well as physio and a statement and all the other things)

When we saw the OT she suggested triangular crayons to promote the 'correct' pincer grip. I got ours from Asda which seems to be the cheapest place. This link is amazon which just shows you what they are!

crayons

I agrer with what the others say about increasing hand strength and would like to add the Dd3 uses a stabilo pencil, they come in different colours for lefties and righties and they do 2 lead thicknesses. Get the thick one first, they really do make marks on the paper with hardly any pressure, Dd3 loves hers, she also has the pen version but she is older than your ds. Although he might like a pen because they are even easier to make marks with.

We get ours from cult pens in the internet, they are not cheap but i would recommend them.

Good luck

Again OT...

Theraputty, it's stiffer than other stuff so builds strength, hamma beads and don't pre-sort them into colours, lol, games like tumblin monkeys and make him set it up.

These are the pencil grips that DS found best, but they have other kinds - that website also has an occupational therapy section full of things like big tweezers and lace up things.

If scissor skills are an issue as well these are great, after trying those I want to know why all scissors aren't made like that.