Short crayons?

[mamashark]

The OT for my son recommended that he use broken crayons and short pencils to draw and color with, but he refuses to use broken crayons... any ideas on how to get crayons or markers or colored pencils that are short? Or do I need to figure out a way to get him to draw with the broken crayons?

 

TIA!

[nature girl]

Pipsqueak (Crayola) markers are great, we used them for awhile. There are also beeswax crayons (we had something called "crayon rocks," beeswax crayons that had groves in them to foster correct finger placement...I'll look to see if I can find a link.

 

ETA: You might want to look HERE...I couldn't find the brand that we used, again it had finger grooves, which was nice, but these all look like they might work well. 

 

 

Edited January 23, 2018 by nature girl

[Lecka]

Golf pencils are a thing, if they’re not too skinny.

 

Also I have two tips I was shown.

 

For a while my son was at a phase where he could use a proper grip if he was down near the bottom, but he couldn’t pick it up and do it.

 

But, at this phase, if you hand a child a crayon, in your fist, with your fist toward the bottom, it can make it natural for them to grasp the crayon down at the bottom.

 

Partly you’re handing it to them without enough room for them to make a fist. If you see them reach for it with a fist, you can remind them to reach out with their fingers.

 

Another hint I got was to use a wad of play-doh, and stick the pencil (or crayon) down into the play-doh. Then have my son pick it up from the bottom. This is easier sometimes than picking a pencil up from flat on a table if kids are picking it up from a table with a fist instead of with their fingers.

 

When we did this, my son “could†hold a pencil or crayon okay, but in practice he would pick it up and hold it with a fist almost all the time. So it was a more natural way to help him not use a fist.

 

A lot of kids will naturally start to use a good grip when they use a short crayon or pencil for a while though, and don’t need the extra steps, I think. Not sure.

 

He kept reverting to the fist hold even after he had a good grip.

 

Well — on second thought I will hope your son makes great natural progress with short things :) I think many kids do and don’t need extra steps :)

 

At a certain point they need to be really short to really prevent kids from using a fist at all, so they “have†to use a good grip. But it is hard. But if kids can do it it is awesome.

[theelfqueen]

If you go to Michael's a lot of the art "kits" come with small crayons, markers or colored pencils.

 

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[Lecka]

I looked and those crayon rocks look awesome! So cool!!!!!!!

 

The thing is, if your son *doesn’t have* a good grip, he will “not like them†because they will be too hard or tiring to use. So if you try something like this and he “doesn’t like it,†it can be because it requires a grip that is too hard.

 

Or it can be because — he just doesn’t like it.

 

That is the thing with broken pencils. Kids might not like them because they are broken, they aren’t how they are supposed to be, etc.

 

Or they can not like them because they are too hard to use.

 

Just something to keep in mind.

 

My son struggled with instinctively using a fist for quite a while, so that’s my perspective.

 

I have had a few occasions though when I have handed little kids a crayon in a way where they can’t grab onto the bottom with a fist, and seen them automatically use a good grip, though.... I have a good impression of it. But they are kids who can do it even if they don’t just automatically do it every time.

 

It takes away a step between picking up a pencil and then adjusting the grip. If you just pick up a pencil it can be natural to pick it up straight into a fist hold. So when it’s too short to even pick up that way — it can automatically correct that.

 

Or kids don’t actually have the grip very well or hate broken things and “don’t like coloring.â€

[Dmmetler]

The Handwriting without tears flip crayons are great-not just because they force the Tripod grip, but because the little boxes are a great size to stick in your purse and have available for a cranky kid anywhere. I bought a class set when the OT recommended them for DD, and I still have a few left :)

Edited January 23, 2018 by Dmmetler2

[exercise_guru]

Those crayon rocks are awesome. I also used small pieces of chalk. There were these tiny little pen tips that I bought as well. I will look and see if I can find what we used but I would try to do it on the cheap. One idea is to make your own crayons the size you want by melting them down but thats a lot of work. But my son hated the feel of crayons on the page so I did what another poster suggested and found little art marker kits. 

 

I assume this is for fine motor. We also took pins and put them in cardboard boxes in designs, perler beeds. Wok & roll anything with chopstick tong things. My OT had him lay on his stomach to do some art and that strengthened his core. My BIL had an awesome idea for his son. He had a lego set and each time his son went to the potty he was given another lego piece to build his set. I wish I had used that as a motivator for my son with writing. Instead we had a therapy jar I named "the writing jar" We put pennies in it everytime he practaced. It worked well . 

 

 

 

Yes the tiny chalk helped but hanging a whiteboard or chalkboard on the wall and having him draw, paint etc helped far more. It stabilized his upper body and helped him endure for fine motor. Doing puzzles and games on the belly helped a lot as well as tong activities. Also have them write the letters with their toes it activates the same part of the brain and cements the shapes of the letters. 

 

If this is for handwriting I wish my OT had told me about shoulder writing & getty and dubay. I found that on my own.  It is so much less fatiguing and the only way my son learned to have any kind of legible handwriting. This was on the recommendation of an amazing lady named Kate Gladstone. You might want to search her sight for ideas. Its kind of a primitive site but her advice helped me a lot. 

 

Edited to add the board on the wall really strengthens the shoulder and the core and allows training of control with a proper grip. We also have a basketball hoop and jumprope because those help train and strengthen the big muscle groups. If retained reflexes are a challenge look into swinging and wall ball. Both help build those shoulder and forearm so that it helps with fine motor control. 

 

We purchased a used drafting table to do homework on for our son who has handwriting problems. It was a challenge getting a chair that fit the ergonomics correctly but it does keep the grip in the correct position at about 7% slant. 

 

Also someone talked below about the pincer grip. YES YES YES picking up tiny little things with your fingers so important. peas whatever. My OT had my son slide around on the floor on a belly board and do this with tweezers. She also had him use rubber bands for rowing and pull downs things like that. The fine motor needed a lot of posture support. 

 

Anything to make it a bit mentally challenging. Our OT would hide pennies inside therapy dough ( play dough works too) and have my son pull the pennies. out. Sorting one color of buttons out of a pile or one shape of beans out of a bag. Both with pincer and with tweazers. 

 

 

Edited January 23, 2018 by exercise_guru

[Dmmetler]

Also, if you have a Sanrio store or similar Japanese culture type store, they often have completely adorable stationary sets with tiny pencils, markers, etc.

[mamashark]

Thank you for all the suggestions! Yes it is for fine motor skills, but I might look into the handwriting thing for my daughter whose handwriting is terrible.

 

I'm collecting all kinds of ideas for strengthening fine motor skills. Due to a scheduling thing and an insurance thing that we have to figure out, we can only go to the OT once a week for a while, so I'm trying to boost all that I can at home too.

[Lecka]

Little-kid tweezers are great.  They are big and chunky and you really have to hold them a certain way to squeeze them. 

[Lecka]

I agree, too, doing activities on a surface that is up like an easel or a whiteboard or chalkboard on a wall, is easier than doing activities flat on a flat table.  For older kids, slant boards are a thing, where they can write at an angle instead of totally flat.  And 3-ring binders can be used as an informal slant board, too.

 

But for younger kids, an easel or a whiteboard or chalkboard, or paper taped to a wall, where things are on a wall or at that angle, are a lot easier than trying to do the same thing flat on a table. 

 

It's not that you would do everything that way and nothing flat on a table, but it is a really good thing to add in and maybe notice that some things are easier to practice/learn when they are not having to do it flat on a table. 

[Lecka]

On little-kid tweezers, I'm going to add...... picking things up with a pincer grip is good in general.  Picking things up from a table with more of a pincer grip and less of a fist is good.

 

If that is hard, using chunky tweezers to pick up things that are kind-of fat can be easier than picking up little things from a table with a pincer grip. 

 

I would listen to the OT on this and take individual advice, but I know for my sons, they had a weak pincer grasp and that really made the tripod pencil grip very hard for them.  So working on the pincer grasp helped them with their pencil grip in its way. 

 

But it's not enough to just pick things up, you have to pick things up with maybe first-finger and thumb, and not with your whole hand/fist. 

 

It's easy to get aversive if you're interacting with your child around "hey you're picking things up wrong, pick things up this way, this is the right way," and oh that is what is hard for them, and what is wrong with how they are doing it anyway?  It makes you the bad guy as a parent and it's not very nice. 

 

It is a lot nicer if you have a game/activity where you use chunky tweezers to pick things up, and it can work on the same things (I think).  Then it's playing with a game and that's just how you play it, not that "you are picking it up wrong, pick it up this way." 

 

Peg boards (made for pre-school age) are also good this way iirc.  I don't think my sons have liked the peg boards as much, maybe they were too hard.  But my older son loved the tweezers.  My younger son struggled more but would do them a little bit, it definitely wasn't aversive, even if it was hard enough he didn't want to do it too much at a time. 

[Lecka]

Scissors are also good, however frankly ime they are much harder and come later.  If scissors are an option they are really good! 

[Lecka]

The chopstick tong things a pp mentioned -- that is what I mean by little-kid tweezers.  They are really good. 

[Lecka]

Also play-doh has a lot of possibilities. Rolling a snake/log is good and it is on the easier side. Rolling a ball is harder. It’s also open-ended so it has more possibility to be creative and social.

[mamashark]

Thanks for the ideas! Right now he is peeling stickers off of a sheet and sticking them on a piece of paper to make pictures with them - He's using that pincer grip and struggling to get the stickers off but is motivated, and having fun. 

[Lecka]

Nice :)

[Terabith]

Golf pencils and break crayons in half.

[exercise_guru]

OH yeh that might be the easiest just cut the new crayons in half so they look nice and see if he will use them. I am not sure what your situation is so sorry for being so effusive in my sharing but here goes. 

In kindergarten and first grade my son could not draw a straight line. We went to OT they recomended small pieces of crayon, tons of fine motor, she felt he had weak upper body so we did basketball and all kinds of stuff. Then she tutored him in Handwriting without Tears. We made ZERO progress. 

 

Then on my own I found out about retained reflexes. I started having him do pincher grip stuff, superman planks, bear crawls and worked and I should have done some weighted vest or something. This made the biggest difference. He was then able to draw a straight line. I ended up pursuing vision therapy, the white board on the wall and getty and dubay. We did this intensively for 6 months. I also got a tracing board and had him trace and do MAZE work etc. It was a long process then suddenly it started to click. I am not saying abandon the OT but maybe do some reading on Retained Reflexes and have vision checked as well. 

Edited January 24, 2018 by exercise_guru

[geodob]

Does your son have retained palmar reflexes, as that could be the reason for using short pencils and short crayons?

The palmar reflex is activated by contact of the inner hand, causing it to form a fist.

Which can be activated by some fingers being curled inside the hand, while holding a pencil.

With short pencils, the fingers can remain extended, avoiding the reflex.

 

With developing fine motor skills?

What needs to be developed, is coordination of the muscles.

Where a crucial factor, is all muscles work in opposing pairs.  So that as one muscle contracts, its opposite needs to extend in precise unison.

As this unison develops, it enables greater fine motor control.

[mamashark]

The OT didn't do anything on retained reflexes, which bugged me, I am going to have to do some studying on that myself. Thanks for that suggestion!

 

 

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