Increasing hand strength in older child

[Arctic Bunny]

Over the last few years, due to moves, the boys have been in several schools, with varying levels of expectations. I have noticed DS12's handwriting going downhill - and I should have stepped in sooner, but here we are.

His printing in grade 4 was very nice and respectable. That's what his teacher expected.

Then we moved... and we are in the third school since 2015. The last two school, there was no homework, and the teachers didn't enforce better printing (on the occasion there were things at home, I made him do-over until neat, so I know it was possible).

New school.... teacher approached me to ask if there was an ongoing problem with his writing. I explained how it has gotten worse, and I would absolutely appreciate him expecting better, etc.

Last night, first homework in ages, terrible printing, made him redo it... but I am terribly afraid the hand strength is gone!! He says it hurts to print properly. I said that means he needs to practice more.

So, if he was in pre-school or K, we would be doing things like pinching cotton balls, etc, right? What can I do with a 12yo? Perhaps surreptitiously?

[Arcadia]

Which part hurts? Fingers or wrist or arm? My DS12 has hand strength problem before he was in kindergarten until now. Pretending to play piano on the table or in the air help. Flexing his fingers to form a fist as many times as he can help and I count that as a warm up PE exercise.

 

How is his pencil grip? Is he more comfortable with a pencil or a gel/rollerball pen?

Edited May 25, 2017 by Arcadia

[freesia]

Piano helped here.

[Arctic Bunny]

Which part hurts? Fingers or wrist or arm? My DS12 has hand strength problem before he was in kindergarten until now. Pretending to play piano on the table or in the air help. Flexing his fingers to form a fist as many times as he can help and I count that as a warm up PE exercise.

 

How is his pencil grip? Is he more comfortable with a pencil or a gel/rollerball pen?

Well now, I didn't ask him which part hurts!

He is more comfortable with a gel pen that requires no effort to scrawl. This teacher, however, is using pencil. The last teacher preferred pen because then the scrawl was dark enough to read. Which I don't think is really a solution.

He *can* write neatly, because I made him do it last night. But it took a lot of effort, and there wasn't much to do.

 

Oh wow.... when we left the school where he had neat printing, we also stopped piano lessons...

[Arcadia]

2B might work as a temporary measure as it is easier to get a darker print with 2B than HB (#2). My DS11 says his crayola twistable #2 pencils are smoother than store brand pencils and his favorite #2 pencils is the yellow Ticonderoga pencils but not the black one. So I kept some new yellow Ticonderoga ones for his exams.

 

My DS12 self taught piano, refuse to have formal lessons. He use my piano as a music composition tool. It does help his fingers flexibility and reduce "droopy wrist".

 

Cello helped my DS12 too. He was doing it as leisure so 30mins practice at most per day.

 

If you don't mind fidget toys, this snake toy is helpful for my DS12 too in terms of fingers dexterity and wrist strength. His main problem was weak wrist muscles and tensed up fingers (tight grip).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00BY714IU

[ElizabethB]

Maybe rock wall climbing?

[...................]

He's still young enough that I would push through using pencils and increasing hand strength. You are right.

 

Amazon sells hand exercise balls of varying strength, they come in a package of three and I think the brand name was either livestrong or Gaiam. My son had to use them after a bicycling accident. They come with instructions and have a nice feel.

Essentially you squeeze and you can also squeeze with just your fingers, your whole hand, etc. you do so ten reps of each kind of exercise

, 2 times per day for two weeks and then move up to the next ball.

 

Believe it or not coloring ---there's a reason they make kids color all the time

 

You can also google "occupational therapy hand strength " and you should come up with something.

 

In the end by 7th grade you can let him switch to pen.

 

Also yes you have to require and enforce proper handwriting.

[2_girls_mommy]

I bought one of those inside out balls, sold on Amazon. The child puts fingers inside and stretches fingers for 1 minute with a timer. I set it and we all take turns doing a minute per hand for one minute. I should have gotten two to do both hands at once, lol. 

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

There is also putty for hand strengthening which can be found on amazon as well has hand grippers for strength training hands.

 

I would also strongly encourage doing cursive, cursive, cursive! This helped my son.

[Targhee]

Hand strength is one of many different things that could cause pain in writing and poor writing. It could be other muscles (forearm, shoulder, even trunk muscles/core) that aren't strong. It could be altered/poor grip. It could be as serious as muscle degeneration or connective tissue diseases (e.g. arthritis). If the teacher notices it I would request through the school an evaluation by OT and then an Rx from the OT for his particular needs.

[stutterfish]

Hypermobility, perhaps? One of mine has some mild hypermobility issues in his hands, a problem which only really surfaced once the amount of writing increased. He had some OT, which helped a little, used putty for a while, and he's done plenty of activities that should have strengthened his hand muscles but writing is still difficult. He's also had shoulder muscle issues which weren't noticed until he was treated for a sports injury. He's been receiving long term physio. I've been told that shoulder stability can really affect handwriting. Mostly he types now. :)

Edited May 26, 2017 by stutterfish

[Arctic Bunny]

Under promise of daily writing practice, he has determined to put more effort into it, with me being able to check random samples :eyeroll:

 

I even found a store with daily writing practice books. Open until 9. 10 minutes away.

 

I will keep my eyes open for opportunities that present themselves, though.

[Arctic Bunny]

Hypermobility, perhaps? One of mine has some mild hypermobility issues in his hands, a problem which only really surfaced once the amount of writing increased. He had some OT, which helped a little, used putty for a while, and he's done plenty of activities that should have strengthened his hand muscles but writing is still difficult. He's also had shoulder muscle issues which weren't noticed until he was treated for a sports injury. He's been receiving long term physio. I've been told that shoulder stability can really affect handwriting. Mostly he types now. :)

Shoulder stability.... upper body strength in general, or something different?

[MistyMountain]

Squeezing theraputty on a daily basic really helps with hand strength. Rock climbing and swinging on money bars are good activities for hand strength.

[stutterfish]

Shoulder stability.... upper body strength in general, or something different?

In his case, apparently (according to osteopath and then physiotherapist), he has been using the "wrong" muscles in his shoulder to do certain actions, i.e. the stronger muscles have been compensating for the (weaker) muscles that should have been being used. It's probably due to biological/genetic factors in body structure, but the issue has been exacerbated by sport.

[Joules]

I finally took ds for OT/PT, when he was 16/17 (because of the SAT essay).  It made SUCH a difference to have a professional figure out the problem, prescribe treatment and exercises, and work with him regularly.  One of my biggest regrets in homeschooling was that I waited so long and wasted so much time just forcing him to practice or do exercises that didn't help.  Years of struggle on my part and she had it figured out and nearly fixed in a couple of months.

[Arctic Bunny]

In his case, apparently (according to osteopath and then physiotherapist), he has been using the "wrong" muscles in his shoulder to do certain actions, i.e. the stronger muscles have been compensating for the (weaker) muscles that should have been being used. It's probably due to biological/genetic factors in body structure, but the issue has been exacerbated by sport.

  

I finally took ds for OT/PT, when he was 16/17 (because of the SAT essay).  It made SUCH a difference to have a professional figure out the problem, prescribe treatment and exercises, and work with him regularly.  One of my biggest regrets in homeschooling was that I waited so long and wasted so much time just forcing him to practice or do exercises that didn't help.  Years of struggle on my part and she had it figured out and nearly fixed in a couple of months.

Thank you. Definitely keeping this in mind.