Getting a Grip

So this is our latest “struggle”…….getting Kwabi to hold his crayons and markers with the correct grip.

He is still fisting it in his palm. Miss Marilyn brought this to my attention some time ago, and I started trying to work with him on it at home. I would lay out his crayons and markers, to encourage him to color and draw more often (since we really hadn’t been doing it too much at home), which he started doing. However, each time I would try to correct his grip, he would jerk his hand away in protest. So I didn’t pressure him, thinking that trying to correct him would lead him to reject coloring.

This week she has brought it to my attention again that she is trying to work with him on it, and his has been resisting. She mentioned that the other boy his age (1 week older) is holding correctly, making circles and tracing numbers, and making lines, but by Kwabi holding his crayons with a grip, he is having a more difficult time. She said that when he grips the crayon, he’s doing more scribbling than anything.

So the other day, I pulled Kwabi aside when we got home, and earnestly talked to him about the importance of holding his crayons correctly….that it will help him with his writing and drawing, and that the other kids at daycare are doing it the correct way, so he should, too. I told him he has to listen to me and Miss Marilyn when we are telling him to hold it the correct way, because we want to help him. And then I attempted to demonstrate to him how to hold his crayons and markers properly.

That conversation was just what he needed to hear, because he was SO coorperative with me that night during our practice time. And last night, too, when we were practicing. He was open and receptive to my instruction, and didn’t pull away or resist. Of course, he kept reverting to fisting it with the change of colors, but I would gently remind him to grip it close to the base with 3 fingers, and he would do it.

This morning he wanted to color some more, and he did even better this morning! I was watching him closely as he switched colors. I wanted to see if he would fist it or use 3 fingers. He did both, but when I verbally reminded him to use 3 fingers to grip it, he was gripping it closer to the top. Then I would tell him, “Okay, move your fingers down closer to the bottom” and he would slowly slide them into position and then keep coloring. I was so proud 🙂

This is something I will work with him on every evening, because as Miss Marilyn says, in her daycare, she has noticed that the kids that are able to grip properly at an early age, learn to read and write sooner, and excel in those areas when ready for Kindergarden. One little boy at her daycare is starting Kindergarden next school year, and this little boy gripped for the longest time. The child’s mom didn’t want to encourage her child to do it properly (she said he would simply learn in his own time) until just recently at over 4 years old.

I, on the other hand, will encourage Kwabi, working along with Miss Marilyn, to be sure that he improves in his weak areas. Kwabi is able to make great circles, so he’s not behind in his ability to draw and color. But this is something that we will keep practicing at home in the evenings until he picks up a crayon and naturally holds it the proper way. He’s a smart boy, so it shouldn’t take him too long to get it!

🙂

Here’s a website that describes how to improve a toddler’s fine motor skills:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2331031_prepare-toddler-writing.html

• Designate a writing center at a desk or table. Make a variety of writing tools and paper accessible to the toddler at the writing center. Have an assortment of washable crayons, markers and colored pencils stored in cups or boxes. You may want to break the crayons, because a shorter crayon will help refine the toddler’s grip even more.

• Encourage drawing and writing. Ask the toddler to sit at the writing center and draw a picture. Talk with the toddler about what she is drawing. Never tell the toddler that her drawing doesn’t look like what she says it is. Another option (rather than sitting at a writing center) is to tape a large piece of paper to the side of the refrigerator for the toddler to draw on. Having to draw on a vertical surface requires even more fine motor skills than drawing on a flat surface.

• Practice the hand grasp. Playing with clay and squeezing it helps toddlers develop the grasp necessary for writing. Crumpling up paper into balls will work on this too. You might make a basketball game out of this and practice counting shots made while you’re at it.

• Get those fingers moving. Finger painting or drawing in wet sand or shaving cream are all great ways to focus on the muscles of the fingers. Also, tracing letters with the fingers will encourage finger movement and work on letter recognition and letter writing.

• Focus on the fingertips. Once the fingers are moving, provide your toddler with opportunities to tear up small pieces of paper that can be used for an art project. Your toddler can also work on removing stickers from a sticker sheet and placing them on paper. Another way to focus on the fingertips is to provide lacing activities, such as lacing cereal or uncooked pasta onto yarn to make necklaces.

• Provide more opportunities to use a writing utensil. A toddler can work on tracing activities using tracing paper or work on tracing objects such as magnetic letters or bottoms of cans and boxes. Connect-the-dots activities will also help a toddler develop the fluid movement necessary for writing. Xs and Os are typically the first letters a toddler can write, so play tic-tac-toe on paper or the sidewalk using sidewalk chalk.

• Allow the toddler some independence. Let him explore buttoning a shirt, pulling up pants, pushing the pump on the soap dispenser, stirring the chocolate milk, squirting a water bottle. All of these tasks strengthen fine motor skills.

• Set an example. Let your toddler see you writing. Whenever you are making a store list, making out a check or writing a letter, ask your toddler to sit next to you and provide writing tools and paper or an old check so she can mimic you doing real-world writing.