3 ways to improve pencil grasp development with coloring
Happy Thursday!
Does your child struggle to use or maintain an age-appropriate functional grasp on his or her pencil? If your kiddo was receiving OT prior to the #quarantinelife, this might have been one of the things he or she was working on.
Good news for you - you can still help your child work on developing or maintaining a functional pencil grasp easily at home! In fact, you can even do this through something as simple as coloring.
Here are my 3 favorite tips:
1. Broken crayons: Yep, you read that right - broken crayons. Coloring with broken crayons naturally encourages proper grasp because the child cannot fit all of his or her fingers on the crayon and therefore must pinch the shortened crayon predominantly with their index finger and thumb. Once they are in this position, a mature tripod grasp is much more easily achieved. It also helps with finger and grip strengthening, as they have to pinch the smaller crayon harder to keep it in their little hands. P.S. - you can also do this the "fancy" way by using tools like crayon rocks if you have them.
2. Vertical surfaces: Coloring on vertical surfaces naturally puts the wrist into slight extension and the thumb and fingers into functional tripod grip position, allowing for better grasp and control over the crayon. It also helps to strengthen the shoulder girdle, elbow, and core, promotes midline crossing, encourages use of the "helper hand", and adds some active variety for kiddos who have difficulty sitting still during tabletop tasks. If you have an easel or slant board - great! If not, no worries! You can tape, clip, push-pin, or even use a magnet on the refrigerator to achieve a vertical surface.
3. Prone: The prone position is when a child lies on his or her tummy on the floor propped up by his or her elbows. Coloring in this position eliminates the ability for your kiddo to use total arm movements and instead encourages the heel of the hand on the paper with coloring movements coming from the wrist and fingers. This allows for both better grasp and control of the crayon.
Happy coloring! :)