Occupational Therapy Rubber Band Pencil Grip

Some of the main aspects of pencil control come from how the pencil is held and how it is manipulated whilst in the hand.

Occupational therapy rubber band pencil grip. Tactile cues like a rubber band and using small items in the palm can help to separate the parts of the hand and promote more mature grasps. Please contact your school ot if you would like more. Teachers are typically responsible for providing handwriting instruction. When you think about it most poor pencil grips are a child s way of compensating for a lack of skills elsewhere.

You can look it up online for a tutorial. Support of the third finger along the pencil. What this pencil grip might be good for. Ideally occupational therapists are looking for the following features when it comes to pencil grasp.

Rolling a pencil in your fingertips turning a pencil over to use the rubber or opening a bottle top by rotating the lid between your fingertips. I sometimes think of this protocol as the un grip because the child actively grasps around the grip to the rubber band instead of using the grip itself to support their fingers. I believe the tip grip protocol was created by jan mcclesky an occupational therapist from the handwriting clinic first strokes program. Rolling an object using your fingertips.

If you give a pencil grip to kids without working on their fine motor skills they are likely to just keep using their poor grasp over the pencil gripper. When a teacher determines that a student is having problems producing legible writing he or she often consults an occupational therapist feder majnemer bourbonnais blayney morin 2007 in fact handwriting difficulties are the most common reason for referrals to occupational therapy in school age children feder. Hand therapy exercise is used for a variety of applications in rehabilitation centers sports medicine facilities hospitals and clinics for. Adjusting your pencil grip or manipulating a button or a zipper with the fingertips.

A pinch between the pads of the thumb and index finger of the pencil. It is a way to adapt the pencil using a the pencil grip that has been cut in half to promote a proper grasp with appropriate joint positioning.