TEACHER HANDOUTS

PENCIL GRASP

Children ideally should be introduced to an efficient and functional pencil grasp in late preschool or kindergarten. Using an efficient grasp generally results in better control of a writing instrument and more legible handwriting.

It is much easier to introduce and reinforce the proper way to hold a pencil in kindergarten, than it is to try to change an inefficient grasp once a child has become accustomed to using it for several years.

It should be noted that there are several types of grasp (or grip) which are generally regarded as efficient. The tripod grasp is the most commonly used, but the quadrupod and adapted tripod are also acceptable (see below). It should also be noted that there are older children and adults who do not use these grips, and have functional handwriting. It is felt however that some handwriting difficulties could be avoided in later years if there is an early emphasis on learning the optimal way to hold the pencil, and there is regular (daily) handwriting instruction and practice.

Preschool age children typically use shoulder, elbow, and wrist movement when they are painting or drawing. As children mature they begin to refine their movement patterns and are able to move a crayon, paintbrush, or pencil via smaller movements of the hand and fingers.

The goal of a proper pencil grasp is to position the pencil in such a way that it is stable, comfortable, and able to be moved via finger movement rather than whole hand movement. When the pencil is held in a proper tripod or quadrupod grasp, the fingers are somewhat flexed, and the pencil can be moved by slightly bending or straightening the fingers.

One very important feature of the mature dynamic tripod, quadrupod, or adapted tripod grasp is that there is an open, fairly circular-shaped web space formed by the thumb and index fingers. If there is a closed web space, it is much more difficult to move the pencil via refined finger movement. The adapted tripod is most often suggested for children who have low muscle tone and have difficulty using either the standard tripod or quadrupod.

After students have completed a few of the warm-up activities suggested above, they can be encouraged to pick up their pencils using a tripod grasp. One way to introduce this is to have the students make an "okay" sign using their dominant hand. Make sure the pads of the index and thumb are touching and that there is an open web space. Place the pencil between the thumb and index and drop the middle, ring, and index fingers so that the last joint of the middle finger is beside the index, and supporting the underside of the pencil. Some children may already have developed the habit of placing the middle finger as well as the index on the pencil. This is an acceptable quadrupod grasp, as long as the child is able to maintain the open web space.

There are a large number of commercially available pencil grips on the market. They can be tried with a child who is having difficulty maintaining an efficient pencil grasp. The bulb-shaped grip called "The Pencil Grip" has been effective with some children, as has the smaller "Stetro" grip.

It is necessary to keep a close watch on children who are using one of these grips to make sure that their fingers are positioned properly and that they are not imposing their preferred, but incorrect, grasp on top of the pencil grip. Sometimes a commercially available grip is useful in introducing the child to the proper grasp and can be discontinued when the child is able to maintain the grasp without it.

Another technique is to give the student a very short pencil (2-3" long). Sometimes this encourages him to hold the pencil with his fingertips, rather than using a whole hand grasp

CENTER ACTIVITIES

Kindergarten and first grade "centers" are perfect opportunities for students to explore and improve hand skills in a natural way. Most of the manipulatives commonly found in these classrooms are useful for promoting bilateral hand use (use of two hands together in a coordinated way) and increased manual dexterity. Here are some additional activities you might want to consider providing:

Activities to develop sense for a dominant and recessive hand:

• Provide stencils, paper and pencils. Child will typically hold the stencil with his/her non-dominant hand, and the pencil in the dominant hand.
• Provide rulers and paper and encourage drawing straight lines. Activity can be unstructured or structured, e.g. the student is asked to draw the vertical lines to form the vertical bars of a lion's cage, or the horizontal rungs on a ladder.
• Locate the stencil activity near a section of the blackboard, and use large stencils on the blackboard. Using a small piece of chalk (one inch) on a vertical surface encourages wrist extension and a tripod grasp.
• Provide a box of large bolts and nuts and have the students screw the nuts onto the bolts.
• Provide a box of assorted jars and jar lids of various sizes and have students match them up and screw the lids on the jars. Observing an activity like this can often give a clue as to which is the student's dominant hand. Typically the lid will be held in the dominant hand.
• Provide the students with about 15-20 flat objects such a poker chips. Instruct the students to stack them with their eyes closed (provide a blindfold), demonstrating how the non-dominant hand will have to "feel" the stack and substitute for visual monitoring.

Activities to increase hand strength:

• Provide a container of hand toys which can be squeezed; include foam balls, flour or rice filled balloons (stress balls), anything "squishy".
• Provide several paper punches and a variety of thicknesses and types of colored paper.
• Use spring-loaded wooden clothespins and instruct the student to place their thumb on one side of the clothespin and their index and middle fingers on the other side (a tripod position). Some suggested activities: write the letters of the alphabet on the clothespins and around the perimeter of a shoebox. Have the students pinch the clothespins onto the box at the matching letter. Numbers could be used as well as letters. Have the students use the clothespins to pick up small objects. One suggested activity is to cut small cubes, (1/3-1/2") out of foam rug padding and use the clothespins to pick up the foam cubes. Letters or numbers can be written on the foam with a fine-line permanent marker. Try to make sure the students maintain a tripod grasp on the clothespin.

Activities to develop skilled hand use:

• Provide several yard-long pieces of s'getti string or round plastic lacing (gimp), as well as drinking straws of different diameters, including the narrow ones that are often used for stirring drinks. Have the child hold the straw in his non-dominant hand and use the thumb and index finger of the preferred hand to feed the string into one end of the drinking straw until the string is completely pushed through.
• Use regular tweezers to pick up or position small objects. Tweezers should be held in a tripod grasp with thumb on one side and index and middle fingers on the other side. Can be used in conjunction with paper punch activities, using the tweezers to pick up the small circles left by the punch. Glue the small circles on paper to create a pattern or picture. Consider "science" type activities which could be performed using tweezers.
• Provide small medicine droppers and small containers of colored water (water with a drop of tempera paint). Encourage students to hold the top of the dropper between thumb, index, and middle fingers and release one drop of water at a time onto a coffee filter or paper towel. Could also count how many drops of water it would take to fill a very small container, such as a medicine dosage cup.
• Encourage students to hold scissors properly. The thumb and middle finger should be placed in the loops no farther than the first joint; the index finger should be under the scissors, helping to stabilize them in a vertical position. This is most easily achieved when the student is using scissors with small equal-sized loops. If one loop is larger than the other, the index and middle fingers can be placed in the larger loop. The index and middle fingers should be relatively flexed as the student cuts, and the ring and little fingers should be flexed and still. Cutting is a good activity to help the child achieve motoric separation in the hand. This is a higher-level skill whereby the child uses the thumb, index, and middle fingers to perform a skilled activity while the ring and middle fingers perform a holding function, or are at rest. This separation of the hand is also seen when the student is able to use a mature tripod grasp on a writing instrument.

HANDWRITING WARM-UP ACTIVITIES

Try to do at least three of the following activities before a handwriting lesson or any activity where writing is required. Always end with "chair pull-ups" and "stack your blocks".

• Students stand next to desk, extend arms and make ten circles forward and ten circles backward.
• Standing, extend arms straight up and make a "windshield wiper" movement, crossing one arm in front of the other. Do ten "swipes", then switch the front arm to the back, and the back arm to the front and do ten more.
• Standing, place palms together at chest level and do a "chest press" pressing palms together as hard as possible, for a count of twenty.
• Standing, bring hands together at chest level and point one thumb up and one thumb down. Curl fingers and hook fingers from left hand into fingers of right and pull, for a count of twenty.
• Do desk "push-ups" by placing hands flat on desk, elbows straight, and press down on desk as hard as possible. Some students may be able to lift themselves slightly off of floor. Do ten.
• Standing or seated, touch pad of thumb to pad of index, middle, ring, and little fingers in succession, do five repetitions. Try this activity with hands next to ears so that students have to rely on proprioceptive and kinesthetic cues instead of vision.
• Standing or seated, touch pad of thumb to pads of index and middle fingers. Extend fingers so that web space between thumb and index is almond shaped; call this "cats eyes. Keeping fingertips pressed together, flex fingers and make web space into a circular shape; call this "owl's eyes". Alternate between cat's eyes and owl's eyes about ten times.
• Seated, give each student a handful of cheerios, raisins, or mini-marshmallows. Instruct the students to pick up the objects one at a time, using only the tips of the thumb, index, and middle fingers. Once the first object is in the palm, shift it over to the ring and little finger side of the hand and hold it there. Continue to gather, shift and hold at least five objects, then shift them back to the fingertips one-by-one and place them back on the desk. Eat when finished. Can also be done with pennies or bingo markers.
• Once seated, do ten chair push-ups, placing hands on seat of chair next to thighs and straighten elbow to lift buttocks slightly off of chair seat.
• Do a chair "pull-up", pulling chair up to desk until student is just able to slip their flat palm between their stomach and the front of the desk. Encourage students to think of their body as a pile of blocks that must be carefully stacked: back straight, hips against the back of the chair, feet under knees. Once children are familiar with the position, teacher should be able to use the term "stack your blocks".