How to help with handwriting -hyper mobility?

[claw3]

Attended parents evening yesterday and teacher told me ds is reluctant to write, needs prompting and lots of encouragement. He writes very little and gives up easily and has trouble forming certain letters correctly.

He has hyper-mobility in his shoulders, arms, wrists and fingers.

When he does write his handwriting seems to be quite neat for a 6 year old, but he writes very little and avoids it where possible.

Im assuming he finds it quite tiring or perhaps uncomfortable.

Anyone else have the same problem and what can be put in place to help?

Does he have chubby, triangular easy to grip pencils to use? That can make handwriting a lot more comfortable.

There are lots of exercises that can be done to improve dexterity and muscle tone and coordination. A lot fof them involving picking up small things and moving them, since this helps develop the grip and wrist movements.

There's lots of suggestions here that would also apply to hypermobility, since a lot of the problems are pretty much the same.
www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/downloads/handwriting_and_dyspraxia.pdf

You can get a lot of different shaped pencils / grips etc that may help. My dd also ahs hypermobility in fingers (as do I althouh it wasn't called that when I was wee!) and she finds the "Yoropen" pencil reasonably useful. She has a tendency to grip the pencil right at the tip whcih leads to very small writing (I recognise that - used to do it myself). I also think that she will find writing painful when she gets older and has to write more - the OT has recommended that she learns to touch type so she can use a laptop when older because of this.

He has nothing in school at the moment. Although Paed identified the hyper-mobility in October i didnt think he was having problems in school until yesterday.

I will go down to the ELC and pick up some chubby pencil grips, thanks.

At home ds is always drawing, but i suppose it takes a bit more effort to write.

Thanks for the website, i will check it out.

He also complains of aches and pains in his legs, although he doesnt have hyper-mobility in his legs. Paed just advised me to give him pain killers on the days he complains.

The website is saying page requested cannot be found.

Thanks Haggis, do you know where i could buy a 'yoropen'? if not i can google.

That is what ds seems to be having difficulty with, the writing more. He seems happy to write a little bit, but then gives up.

Bah! There's a link to it halfway down this page.
www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/downloads/downloads.php

Thank you ouryve, have downloaded and will have a read. Also got some pencil grips this afternoon.

Thanks again

i'm so glad someone has picked up on this while your child is young. I was just always told that my daughter wouldn't write it wasnt until she changed school that a teacher recognised that she wasn't holdinga pencil properly.

She is now 17 and only recently been diagnosed with hypermobile joints afer having years of problems with her knees and needing shoulder surgery last year as she is so lax that when she injured her shoulder it constantly dislocated.

As for pens she found the stabilo pen that is shaped useful she was also left handed and they do right and left handed ones.

All my dc have it to a point .dd has in her wrists fingers her school been proactive are looking into. A laptop for her she's on y2

ds3 has it but lot more sevrere it's pretty much given he will use a computer even now at 4.8 he can not hold a pen correctly even with grips

Notso, Paed identified hyper mobility in ds arms during an examination. He didnt check his legs, just looked at his knees and said he didnt have it in his legs as they 'didnt bend backwards'. His legs are bendy though, not backwards bendy, but out to the side bendy iyswim.

Ds often complains of his legs aching and walks as if his legs are stiff, refuses to go up and down stairs etc. But some days he can run and jump with the best of them.

Ds is left handed too.

By bendy sideways i mean he will sit on the floor in a W shape, if that makes more sense!

You shouldn't let him sit like that claw, it's bad for their joints, did you tell the Paed that he sits like that?

The OT that saw my son, told me not to let him sit like that.

I didnt mention to the Paed, at the time i had never heard of hyper-mobility and as far as he was concerned ds didnt have it in his legs, so seemed irrelevant at the time.

I mentioned it to OT and she told me hyper - mobility wasnt a problem unless it caused a problem.

Ds is currently being reassessed by a different OT and have emailed her today and told her about school and his legs again.

I do tell him not to sit like this, as i was move worried about his circulation.

Sitting like that causes or can cause joint issues i think, i'm sure that's what she said it was, i wasn't paying that much attention as he doesn't tend to sit like that anyway.

It always seems irrelevant until it's not, that happens to me all the time.

ds2 has/does use or has tried loads of different things.
Grippy pencils
clips that hold the pencil on your hand so that you don't have to grip it yourself.
Sloping writing desk top
wrist splints
foam Wedges to support back of hand/wrist
due for IT assessment to see what sort of computer/keyboard to provide.

Ther are loads of resources, gadgets & ideas out there. If the school or OT haven't got anything to suggest it is worth either you or the school calling the local sn schools, they often ahve ms outreach support programmes.

Ds seems to find it the most comfortable way to sit, hadnt given much thought to joints to be honest until now!

OT has recommended all the things anon meantions and am trying to get ds's school to implement it- no joy so far

Thanks Anon, i have some pencil grips which i will give to teacher for starters and have emailed OT today asking for suggestions and recommendations for school. Will bear phoning SN school in mind, just in case.

Reason for Advoidi g the w postion is the strain it puts on the hips and the knees and yes it's Cosy I often sit like it to

some people are hypermobile with out the pain symptoms like anything such a wide spectrum.some have it in a few joints others all over .me and ds knees bend backwards ds ar a very odd bend but you can have in. Ankles but not knees ditto hips etc

Ds actually has it in his spine

Thanks Phoenix, would ds be able to run, jump, skip etc on some days or would it be constant if he had hyper mobility in his legs?

Although the pain and stiffness is not a daily thing, he has been complaining about it for years.

Paeds have just told me to give him pain killers on the days he complains.

Yes along with varabljty of joints affected there is good days and bad days Think it's choptheducjs dd that's like this to know she uses a wheelchair some days

Yes it can often be put down to growi g pains but think Drs need to realise that dc do not often chose to stop doing things even though it hurts

ds if he's had a busy day next 2or 3 is miserable he wears afo to help stablise ankle

yes we was also told just painkillers like calpol nutofen but we now moved k. To baclofenic To control the spasms so there is. More pain control out there

My dd is also hypermobile in most joints and has low tone in her trunk. She sits in the W position too - apparently children with low tone core muscles like this because it provides a more stable base than knees!

My dd has an OT who advised us to try getting dd to lie on her front to do activities as much as possible as this would strengthen her joints for writing. Also doing little circles with arms stretched out helps strengthen shoulder joints. Wheelbarrows are good too.

Both my dcs have fairly severe hypermobility affecting wrists, ankles, knees, hips and lower back. Dd uses a wheelchair from time to time. But in between has days when she can dance- did ballet until last year.

Ds has just spent a week off school because his hips are so bad he can't sit upright. But in the previous week he was out kicking a ball.

It's just totally unpredictable.

Ah glad your on here cory muddled you up sorry

Minty, thanks its more than a W, its hard to explain, he sits in a kind of W, its more of W but with his legs right out to the sides!

He hates being on his front too.

Thanks Cory and Phoenix, is there a physical test that can identify whether he has hypermobility in his legs,hips etc other than his knees not bending backwards?