new pencil grasp issue?

[MeganW]

Both of my 5 1/2 year old girls were in OT for ages, and graduated last fall with normal pencil grasps.

 

Camille struggled for ages, and with the Stetro grips (which we have been using for about a year), she finally had a normal grasp that she used even when she grabbed a crayon or pencil that didn't have the grip on it. Suddenly, her thumb is creeping over the top of her pointer. That was NOT the original issue, so I'm not sure why this is now emerging.

 

Help for a creeping thumb?

 

Meredith had a normal grasp, but her hand tired easily. About a month ago, I looked over and her crayon was straight up and down rather than laying back in the "web" between her thumb and pointer. I corrected it, but somehow that is the new default and she can't seem to make it lay down. When I tell her to fix it, she attempts to but can't even remember how it is supposed to be. (This is my compliant child - she's truly confused.)

 

Thoughts about how to get that pencil to lay back down?

 

My youngest (and most challenging) child is 4. She was a full-term typical single child, so has not had all the therapy the others have. She has a normal grasp, that she figured out on her own. My issue with her is that she asked to start handwriting a year ago (at age 3) and I put her off b/c I thought she was too young. Now, she has figured out how to write most of her letters herself, and so doesn't want any instruction, but she has figured them all out wrong. Like the R - she makes a circle, then adds two legs. It looks like a bird! All her letters are approximations, and I know what they are supposed to be, but nobody else does. Now what? Do I leave it alone for now, and force her to do a handwriting program with me when she is a little older? Or is that giving her too much time to develop more bad habits?

 

Thanks!

[SonshineLearner]

Well, I'd suggest Handwriting Without Tears, 3rd grade cursive. It's great. Changing to cursive... which developmentally should... and use to.. come first... helps with the "already learned" letters. You need one teacher's guide... and a student one for each of your children. I'd do it with all 4 at the same time. You put them all in front of you, and show them how the letters are made. You ask them to do it correctly, and I'd insist. I've seen my super smart step-daughter's handwriting who had teachers who didn't. UGH!! It's horrible, and the letters are formed incorrectly.

The HWT does a pencil flip that is great. When you order, you can get special paper... and pencils, too. I didn't... but I would have.. if I had seen them when I had to pay for things the first time :)

 

Good Luck!!

[Dmmetler]

For the youngest, I'd get Handwriting Without Tears Pre-K and go through it-focusing on the letter pieces, stamp and see screen, the slate, and so on. You can improvise most of the supplies if you get the teacher's guide. I consider the workbook extra at that age, but if your DD is one who would enjoy it, I'd get it, too. Since she's trying to write and wants to write, I'd go ahead and teach her-and the HWT program is good for that.

[mhaddon]

HWOT didn't work for us as a program, but- the crayons and then small pencils worked wonders. He hated the paper and needed more repetition (they frown upon this I know). Plus the ETC books confused him even more. But, I ordered the crayons and that helped a ton b/c they are so short. I added in a ton of extra fine motor skills and he is doing so much better. We didn't buy the pencils from them b/c when we cleaned out an old house we were given she had a box of the little put put golf type pencils that were the same that we used :)

[Guest]

I wrote HWT asking about this problem and they suggested I use only the really small "golf" pencils and cut dd's crayons in half. When I tried her with this and a slant board, by golly she has the most beautiful pencil grip I'd ever seen.

 

Only problem: she is an Aspie, couldn't bear her crayons being broken, and refused to write. Aspies can be the world's champions of passive defiance and stubborn adherence to nonfunctional things, and in this one she beat me down.

 

In despair I let her use her dysfunctional pencil grip; she is now fourteen, the grip is as bad as ever, but she has no hand pain and is writing 28-page stories over a few sittings with no trouble at all. Her writing is legible, even sometimes lovely.

 

But the techniques the HWT people recommended really did work, and worked right away. You could try them out and see what happens.

[rwilliams]

For the pencil that is straight up and not in the web space. You can simulate a handy[writer by taking a soft-stretchy ponytail holder and placing on the child's wrist, then loop the pencil around the bracelet directly behind the web space. This will solve that problem. You can google ot ideas and look at the picture of the handy writer to get a better idea. Your other daughter whose thumb is sliding over the pencil. If it is occasionally, I would not worry. we all change our grips when we write for a while and are fatiguing. If it is too often, go back to the stetro for a while. For your 3 year old......Kumon as these laminated alphabet cards that are erasable. The are large block letters with dotted lines inside. They give a circle for the starting point and a star for the stopping point. They also, give number cues for what line to make first, second and third. They would let her be independent in tracing the letters while giving her cues for directionality. I just used them with a 4 year old in therapy who is very strong willed and they worked great for letting her do it with less direction from me.

[hsbaby]

As a straight up pencil, creeping thumb gal myself, I would say that sometimes, no matter how hard you try to change their grip, they will stubbornly hold it the way most comfortable to them. Growing up I had teachers on me all the time trying to get me to hold my pencil the "right" way. It was torture! It was like telling a right handed person to write with their left. I just couldn't hold it comfortable that way. So my, probably unpopular, advice is not to worry so much about their grip. If their writing is neat and they are comfortable, why does it matter? I held my pencil like that all the way through college:)