Ben has amazed us with how much he knew coming to us, and then in how much he has learned since being with us. He is one smart little boy in math, reading, the English language, problem solving, etc.
However, the one area he really struggles with is his fine motor skills especially with handwriting.
This boy had no therapies during his 1st 6 years in the orphanage so we can definitely see he never was trained how to properly hold a pencil.
School has worked with him for 3 years now and has basically said they have gotten him to the best point they feel possible with his pencil grip. They feel like he is functional even though it's not pretty. We agreed with school since he was able to write legibly. It didn't seem worth the fight/struggle for any of us to get him to hold a pencil correctly.
Well, I agreed until spending the past 3 months homeschooling him.
Watching him write, especially during math, is excruciating painful!
I am a bit of a neat freak and so his messiness, even though he is doing the best he can, really bothers me. I always taught my older kids that being neat in your math work is half the battle to doing the math accurately. I still feel that way. The way Ben chicken-scratches his numbers etc, it is often impossible for him to do his math calculations!
So I am taking on the battle to help his pencil grip- even though many have tried before me, I am going to try myself. I don't know if I will be successful, but for my sanity I have to try. Plus I think if he can get a better grip, handwriting will be less uncomfortable for him. He honestly looks like he is in pain when he writes because of the way he positions his fingers/hand/arm.
After doing some research, I have decided on the following products.
Today was our first day using one of the pencil grips, and I felt like I saw improvement already. I also took some photos/videos to show our progress today.
This is the pencil grip I tried in the past that didn't work. For one thing, I think I ordered too small of a size so it was hard and frustrating for Ben to try and squeeze his thumb and pointer finger into the pockets. But the other problem is he continues to position his 3rd/4th fingers very strangely since there is no guide for how he should hold those fingers.
So I found this set of 4 pencil grips that you use progressively. Stage one (UPPER LEFT PHOTO- PURPLE GRIP) is what we used today. It's nice because the ring on the bottom is for the 3rd finger so Ben can position that correctly.
Photo of Ben withOUT a pencil grip- his grip is weak and very awkward. Looks like a real struggle for him to write.
Ben using the Stage One grip- his grip looked stronger, and he was more in control of his writing.
Another photo using the new grip
And another photo showing new grip
Here are two videos of Ben writing
Here Ben is not using pencil grip, and I feel like his fingers/hand are in awkward position.
In the bizarro world we live in at our house, there are many skills that Ben does better than Jonah even though Jonah has had interventional therapies since 1 month old. How funny/weird/unexplainable is that? But one skill Jonah is VERY good at is handwriting (when he chooses to concentrate). Here is a photo of Jonah writing: great form!
Here is a video Jonah writing.
Please excuse his teeth-grinding, often happens when he is concentrating on a task.
Finally, here is the other product I purchased to try. The child has to hold a charm inside his palm to help with proper hand position while writing.
Let's hope we have some success!
It can't hurt to try, right?
Here is the link to 4 Stage Pencil Grippers
Here is the link to the Pencil Grip Bracelet
