Learn to write...
Thursday, February 4, 2010
It has been seen that most of the children with developmental disability have some or other fine motor difficulties. The reason could be one or many of poor coordination between 2 brain hemispheres, poor eye hand coordination, poor muscle tone, poor dexterity skills and proximal stability. These children have poor grasp, hold and transfer activities in their early developmental period but later, his or her functional activities are effected which indirectly affects the academic progress. Poor hand functions leads to poor writing and copying skills which could be so severe, that some children withdraw themselves academically and socially.
Coordinated hand functions are important for ADL’s (activities of daily living). But sometime, especially in younger children, the importance of hand functions are missed which could be very difficult for care takers and children. Majority of caretakers have concerns of poor hand writing.
To improve the functions of hand, the child has to thoroughly assessed not only in hand functions like grip, hold and transfer but also to bilateral hand movements, tactile and Proprioceptive sensitivity, Visio-spatial ability, hand dominance, eye hand coordination, proximal and distal joints and their muscle functions and various functions of brain (laterality, focusing and centering).
The child can be prepared for hand writing by strengthening the muscles around distal and proximal joints, coordination exercises for brain and definitely lot of encouragement. Apart from exercises, the child should be taught to write on the sand, black board or on the wall for better understanding of strokes and movements or forming the letters. Later, he can be trained to write smaller on grids or on dots for spatial alignment. This should be done in graded fashion so that the child does adjust well. The child learns faster when writing is combined with auditory input like “up to down” is “one” and so on. Some times, the child has to assist with physical support or modifications like grippers or weights.
Physical activities concentrating on proximal stability and brain gym activities would be beneficial with other coordinated and strengthening exercises.
Both the parents and regular teachers should also understand the difficulties faced by the children. They should not burden the child with lots of activities and writing stuff so that the child gets frustrated and gives up. The teaching should be patient, playful and easy and graded for the child.
Posted byNeeti at 11:31 PM
Labels: child disability, early intervention, education, finemotor control, guidance, parenting tips, writing
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