To encourage a proper grasp while coloring at school, Michael’s OT proposed a trial of shorter crayons. When she first brought them in, Michael didn’t want to use them, so they made a deal that he could use the regular ones as long as he held them with three fingers.
Within a couple of days, he had voluntarily switched to the shorter ones. He is enjoying coloring a lot more now and even gets upset when the teacher says time is up before he has finished (a topic for another post!).
The ones he is using are flip crayons promote a tripod grasp by virtue of their size. As a plus, they also help develop fine motor coordination as the child flips the crayons around in his or her hand.
There are other types of crayons available for this purpose, such as short chubby ones and triangular ones. You could also just break regular crayons to make them shorter. Although this would fit our budget better, it was not considered acceptable by the child in question!
Please join in and share the creative solutions YOU have found to your own challenges, or feel free to post your own challenge for input from others. For more details on how to participate, click here.
Trish can be found writing here at 5MFSN every Friday in addition to hosting Try This Tuesday. You can also find Trish at her blog, Another Piece of the Puzzle.