My ds is complaining of pain in his wrist while writing cursive

[jacqui in mo]

but not with printing. We are reintroducing cursive with him (he's almost 11 yo) to try to rehabilitate his sloppy writing. He doesn't seem to be holding the pencil incorrectly or too tightly. I do find it odd that it doesn't bother him while printing though. He does say it hurts at other times as well like during baseball play. Could this be carpal tunnel syndrome? Either way, does anyone have suggestions on what we should try? Right now I've asked him to take a break from computer thinking maybe that has aggravated his wrist with too much repetitive mouse movement.

 

Thanks

Jacqui

[TeacherZee]

I think, and I could be wrong here, but when you write cursive you write continuously whereas when you print you take small breaks between letters. It is simply a different set of muscles he is using and these muscles won't have been used in this way before. Like anything with muscles he will need short training sessions that grow longer as he builds stamina. HTH

[jacqui in mo]

I think, and I could be wrong here, but when you write cursive you write continuously whereas when you print you take small breaks between letters. It is simply a different set of muscles he is using and these muscles won't have been used in this way before. Like anything with muscles he will need short training sessions that grow longer as he builds stamina. HTH

 

That's a good thought about using a different set of muscles. So far our training sessions are very short & consist only of forming single letters, writing a continuous line of them, slowly. We do maybe 2 lines (if I can even get him to do it). He is rather stubborn about not wanting to do it as well (which is why I had previously let go of this battle but his printing has gotten to the point where I can hardly read it). I don't want this pain to derail us from working on this.

[TeacherZee]

Sounds like you are going about it the right way. Tell him it will take a while but it will get better like with almost everything. It might also help if he wiggles his wrist between lines. Sort of shake the muscles loose.

[cworthy]

He might be gripping the pencil too tightly as well. My daughter did this when she was younger. We found some pencil grips at a local school supply store that helped. I have no idea what they were called, but they were sort of spongy, but firm, and designed to help kids grip correctly. (That was 8+ years ago, so something even better has probably come out by now. :001_smile:)

[calandalsmom]

Cursive should be easier on the muscles not harder, according to our conversations with our OT.

 

Id have him checked out at the dr. I know my ball player would be irritated (if not by the pain during writing) by the interference in his game.

[AndyJoy]

I had the same problem due to gripping my pencil too hard and pressing down too hard. I did end up with carpal tunnel problems in high school from too much note-taking, but I remember having pain as young as 8 because I gripped too hard while concentrating.