Preschool fine motor and handwriting development

Today in our Mini Charmer's Pre-K class, we continued our focus on numbers.  Our class contains ten gifted kiddos ready to learn formal handwriting prior to kindergarden.

After spending the first several months on uppercase letters, working on numbers is a nice change of pace.   Boys especially like numbers as they relate to numbers often better than girls ( girls often have an easier time with letters).

Our first activity is for the kids to find the numbered gingerbread men in the gym.  Each child is assigned a number to find.

This format helps kids to increase skills in visual perceptual, visual memory, and number recognition.  This also helped with team building, as we heard "Jack, here is your number!", "thanks!", and so on.   Next we took all of the numbers and laid them out on the floor one by one.  I asked "is a 4 bigger or smaller than a 12?".   As we continued this process we ordered them from 1-20 on the floor and then counted forward and backwards.  Many kids this age do not consistently recognize numbers in the teens and so this repetition is great for them.  

After some good gross motor action in the gym, we settled in the classroom and did centers that warm up and increase fine motor skills. 

Wind up toys were a big hit. Wind up toys help so much with translation (stabilizing something with one part of your hand and mobilizing with the other part) as well grip strength. 

Pop beads were another center.  These pop beads are quite hard, but the kids had no trouble at all with it!

Pop beads of this size are super because they force a child to utilize a stable pincer grasp while using strength in pushing together.   This carries over into grasping a pencil correctly.  

Another fun center was the textured stencil and rubbings of dinosaurs and sea creatures.  This would also be a super Christmas gift (kids love these).  They are made by Melissa and Doug and can be found at Toys and Company, whom we partner with.  The stencils are two part-  they first can be used to stencil amazing animals, insects or dinosaurs and then they can be used as a rubbing plate.  

In this picture, he is completing the stencil side.  Next, he will put the textured stencil under the paper and then rub the crayon to make the drawing come to life.  As an occupational therapist, this is one of my all time favorite activities to develop hand and handwriting skills WITHOUT doing handwriting.  Great fun for all.  My 11 year old even likes doing these stencils.  

Lastly, I teach the direct skill of writing numbers.   We use our Handwriting Without Tears book and the kids lay on their stomachs (it works on core strength but also makes sure that the wrists are stabilized appropriately).  

I give everyone a slate chalkboard and demonstrate how to write each number 1-3 today and then each child practices it.  I was truly amazed at how well they did and they were so proud of their accomplishment.  It is a wonderful experience to see children learn to love handwriting and to gain such confidence.  

Sit still, keep hands to yourself, & stop bumping into me!

Children often get in trouble at school for being "wiggly", not keeping hands to themselves or for personal boundary issues.  In late pre-k and kindergarten it becomes more important for students to learn these concepts.  When children do not master these concepts, they often get in trouble more and more and may start to dislike school.   Why do some children have problems in these areas?

Any of these issues may stem from a number of non-behavioral reasons. These are the major ones that I see:

Core Strength:  this affects sitting still in line, staying seated in a chair, and sitting upright in the floor during circle time.  Our core strength is a perfect synergy between our extensor muscles (in our back) and our flexor muscles (in our stomach).  When one, or both of those muscles do not have good enough strength to maintain an upright position for sustained activities, then a student will basically tire out.  The child may lean on others, attempt to lay in the floor, change positions, fall out of their chair, and be "wiggly".  In addition, kids with less than adequate core strength will often have reduced endurance and may be quite fatigued after an elementary school day.

Proprioception: this is one of our body's sensory systems that allows us to sense our body's position in space.  Our joints, tendons, and muscles contain the receptors that allow for accurate proprioceptive feedback.  When you lift weights, you feel each muscle that is being exercised.  If you work out well, you'll have awareness of those muscles long after your workout is over.  During and after this workout, you have a keen sense of where these sore muscles are.  In fact, if you close your eyes, you could likely point right to the place that you are the most sore.  This is proprioception (and maybe some lactic acid setting in too!).  Everyone has different thresholds for senses.  Kids that seem to be a bull in a china store most likely have very high thresholds for proprioceptive input.... meaning that their nervous system needs much more input before it can register the input. Kids that may have a high threshold for proprioceptive input are the ones that bump into everything, seem to be accident prone or clumsy, constantly seem to touch others, may hug or play too rough, or may crave  jumping/bouncing.

What to do?  For core strength, swimming, karate, and yoga are great activities that help.  You have to stay after it so that you can build on the core strengthening.   For proprioception, a sensory diet works wonders.  Activities that allow a child to get this input prior to school will help the child to succeed.  Sensory diets have to be allowed during and after the school day too.  They don't have to be obvious activities though.   A sensory diet activity can be carrying books in a crate to the library, jumping on a trampoline for 20 minutes prior to school, monkey bars,  sitting and bouncing on a yoga ball, climbing up a rope,  and other heavy work activities. 

If you need help, then get a pediatric occupational therapist involved.  Often, it is helpful for the connection at school as an O.T. can explain why a child's behavior is an attempt to activate the nervous system, not an attempt to drive the teacher crazy.  :-)

Letter recognition, visual perceptual and rock salt

Kids love digging in odd textures and after having left over rock salt I decided it would be fun to utilize it during therapy.   I added some colored alphabet letters (they are actually beads) to the salt.

Then I wrote a few letters that they would be looking for on the grey boxes (Handwriting Without Tears paper).

I allow the alphabet letters to be upside down or backwards in the rock salt, as being able to find them in this manner increases form constancy which is a  visual perceptual skill.  Form constancy just means that a leaner know that a letter turned sideways/different color/various size is still that letter and can pick it out. Form constancy is a skill needed for reading.

To modify this activity to make it harder, I could actually write a few letters on the grey boxes, let them look at it for a few seconds, and then turn the sheet over and have them see how many letters they can find that I had written down.  If they can put them in order then this increases the challenge.  I often may ask the child to write the letters in the extra boxes.  Asking a child to find a certain number of letters in a specified time is a great way to increase the challenge.  If I want to test letter recognition, then I could ask them to give me certain letters but not write them down. 

To modify this activity to make it easier, I could decrease the number of letters in the rock salt and decrease the letters that they are looking for.    If the child doesn't like the tactile feel of the rock salt, then they can pull out with tongs or use thin gloves to pull the letters out of the salt.

The Need for the Extreme in kids with ADHD

Kids that have the need for the extreme.  You know the ones, like my son, who are risk takers.  They are the ones that constantly push the limits for movement and balance.   You'll find these kids swinging upside down, climbing trees higher than they should, and often excelling in sports.  They may have reduced impulse control as well.  Our control of impulses are the ones that keep us from saying things that we do not mean, trying physical activities that are risky, and even waiting to enter a conversation without interrupting.   The impulsive part of ADHD is the part that attributes to these children having a higher risk of injury than other kids.  We used to half laugh (half gasp) that my son never looked when he crossed a street...all part of impulsivity.  In fact there have been studies regarding the higher incidences of kids with ADHD getting hurt. 

Many kids like my son have ADHD and are also on the "go" constantly.  It really is like he is being driven by a motor.  Although exhausting for the parents at time, I have found that is is necessary to embrace the really positive things about ADHD.    Kids with ADHD need lots of movement as it centers them and allows them to learn.  Some kids (like my son) need pretty extreme movement (vestibular and proprioceptive input) which can be seen by the types of activities he chooses to engage in.  Once he gets all sweaty, climbs up and down trees, wrestles the dog, plays soccer, stomps all around the house, rides his pogo stick with one hand and one foot, growls loudly like a bear, and dribbles the basketball until all of the neighbors are jarred out of their beds THEN he is ready to learn.  Oh, and that all happened in an hour.