Ten year old, fine motor not so great

[Jennifer132]

What would you do, if anything, for a ten year old boy who has "weak hands"? Academically he does great, socially he is fine, he's not particularly coordinated, but it hasn't held him back with friends thus far. He writes a page every day and doesn't complain of fatigue or hand pain. But, little things show his fine motor is lagging. For instance, he can't clip his jeans onto a hanger because the clips are too difficult. His nine years old sister can. He also can't really tie his shoes properly. He gets the method, but he can't achieve tightness with the loops. There are other examples, but those are the two I can think of now. He does have a very poor pencil grip (tucks the thumb in) that I have never been able to correct, despite multiple attempts. But his handwriting is decent enough. And he had an OT eval at five and they said he was fine. Thoughts?

[zoobie]

He might have been within the range of normal at 5, but that was five years ago. I would start with another OT eval and mention it to the ped in case you need to rule out medical causes. In the meantime, you can google therapy putty exercises. But I would not try to DIY it. Not being able to do clips and tie shoelaces is far outside of the norm at 10. No need to struggle when OT is a simple, painless eval.

[Daria]

It sounds like the issue is the strength in his hands, not so much the motor control.  Is that right?  If so, I'd look at gadgets that exercise the hand.

[Jilly]

I would have him evaluated again. My son passed many tests when he was younger but by the time he was 11 he was behind his peers. I had him re-evaluated and he qualified for both OT and PT. 

[klmama]

Try to find interesting, fun things for him to play with that will strengthen his fingers and hands at the same time.  Bubble wrap is a great one - have him press the bubbles between his thumb and each of the different fingers.  Give him tweezers and some tiny things to pick up and carry to a receiving container of some kind - grains of rice, seed beads, etc.  For overall grip, they make those hand grip tools in smaller sizes.  2 or 3 lb. weights would be something he could practice with to strengthen his hands and wrists, as well as gripper balls or tennis balls.