Best Handwriting for childrens

1. HANDWRITING SKILL TRAINING Presented By : AasthaGoel Never lose an oportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting

2. It is a complex process of handling language by pencil grip, letter formation, and body posture. Handwriting efficiency requires mastery of multiple skills, including vision, coordinating the eyes, arms, hands, memory, posture, and body control, as well as the task of holding a pencil and forming letters.

3. Legibility? (All or most of the words written can't be read out of context.) • Neatness? (The handwriting is messy or poorly controlled.) • Comfort? (The child is experiencing pain, strain or discomfort when writing.) • Pressure? (S/he is pressing too hard or not hard enough, or pressure within one piece of writing is variable.) • Speed? (S/he writes very slowly, producing too little writing, or too fast, becoming inaccurate.) • Motivation/enjoyment? (S/he is reluctant to write or gives up too easily.) Main areas of concern? As parents or teachers say

4. Signs and symptoms in the children with handwriting difficulties • Children may exhibit strong verbal but particularly poor writing skills. • Random (or non-existent) punctuation. • Spelling errors • Misinterpretation of questions  • Disordered numbering and written number reversals. • Generally illegible writing • Inconsistencies: mixtures of print and cursive, upper and lower case, or irregular sizes, shapes, or slant of letters

5. Inconsistent position on page with respect to lines and margins and inconsistent spaces between words and letters. • Cramped or unusual grip, especially holding the writing instrument very close to the q paper, or holding thumb over two fingers and writing from the wrist. • Talking to self while writing, or carefully watching the hand that is writing. • Slow or labored copying or writing - even if it is neat and legible.

6. WHAT GETS YOU WRITE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE PAPER ? • Visual perceptual skills-The ability to interpret and use what is seen in the environment. • Visual motor coordination -The ability to visually take in information, process it and be able to coordinate your physical movement in relation to what has been viewed. • Orthographic coding – To read and spell words . • Kinesthetic Feedback – Sensorial feedback from movement . • Motor Planning and Execution

7. SIX PREREQUISITES THAT CHILDREN MUST HAVE BEFORE HANDWRITING BEGINS ARE: • Small muscle development • Eye-hand coordination • Ability to hold utensils or writing tools • Capacity to smoothly form basic strokes such as lines and circles • Letter perception, including the ability to recognize forms, notice likeness and differences, infer the movements necessary for the production of form and give accurate verbal descriptions of what is seen • Orientation to printed language, which involves the visual analysis of letters and words along with right/left discrimination.

8. NEUROBIOLOGY BEHIND HANDWRITING SKILLS

9. ASSESSMENT • When evaluating the actual task of children's handwriting, following 4 areas are considered: • Domains of handwriting - copying, manuscript to cursive transition, ability to integrate auditory directions and a motoric response (dictation). • Legibility components - letter formation, letter alignment, spacing, size and slant • Writing speed - the number of letters written per minute • Ergonomic factors - writing posture, upper-extremity, stability, mobility and pencil grasp pattern.

10. SPECIFIC OUTCOME MEASURES. • Beery VMI (ages 2-100) • Test of Handwriting skills (ages 5 through 18-11) • Minnesota Handwriting Assessment (1st and 2nd graders) • ETCH (grades 1-6)

11. WHAT TO TEACH FIRST/AREAS TO CONCENTRATE /GOALS • Formation • Line orientation • Size • Spacing • Pressure

12. FORMATION • MULTI-SENSORY APPROACH • Tactile boards, sandpaper, shaving cream, sand/sugar trays, dry erase crayons, chalk, wiggle pens, finger paint • Color changing markers, gel bags, rainbow writing • Have students form letters with eyes closed • Handwriting without tears “wet-dry-try” • “Body” writing

13. LINE ORIENTATION • Refer to lines by name (top, middle, bottom) • Be consistent with paper usage • Trace lines with finger, then with marker/highlighter • Trace line with glue (raised line paper) • Begin with vertical line, then move to circles, then letters • Begin without drop letters?

14. SIZE • Teach “tall”, “small”, (“drop”) letters in groups • Practice identifying size variance using objects, people • Worksheet where students fill in tall, small, drop letters • Words with only small or only tall letters • Mixed words: highlight small or tall letters

15. SPACING • Student points out spaces between pre-written words • Practice spacing between people, objects • Use pennies, spacers, etc. • Highlight spaces

16. PRESSURE • Practice pressure on student’s arm/hand • Practice pressure on play-doh • Write on tracing sheet , crepe, carpet, etc. • Feel the lines on the back of the paper • Weighted pencil

17. Handwriting Intervention • Occupational therapy frames of reference that apply to designing handwriting intervention programs include: • Neurodevelopment • Sensory integration • Biomechanical ( motion, strength and endurance) • Behavioral • Acquisitional

18. Strength and Stability • In order for us to develop control over the smaller muscles of the hand we must have support or control in our trunk, and in all of the other joints leading up to the hand. • The hand itself needs adequate strength to hold on to a writing utensil and isolate control in individual muscles. • Watch for slumping, poor grasp pattern, or fatigue • Activities For Shoulder and Postural Stability: • Animal walks that encourage weight bearing on the arms, i.e.. Crab walk or bear walk • Slant boards • S’cool moves

19. CRAB WALK BEAR WALK

20. Positioning Feet and back supported at a 90 degree angle Desk height about 2 inches above elbow resting at side Sometimes a seatbelt can add extra stability and help child to focus if needed Slant boards Slant boards can help with forearm and wrist support needed to isolate finger movements. Clips on slant boards can hold the paper in the appropriate position (30-45 degree angle) if bilateral coordination is difficult. Slant boards can also improve posture and visual awareness

21. Handwriting warm ups (Let’s Practice!) Brain gym, S’cool Moves, and Yoga Calm programs have an extensive program that can help integrate body and mind to improve learning potential Wood Pieces • Learn the language of big line, little line, big curve and little curve • Learn directionality-top, bottom, above, below, right, left • Mat man teaches body awareness • Laminated capital letter cards with perceptual activities on the back • Make letters and shapes on the mat or on the floor

22. HOW TO HOLD THE PENCIL ? The pencil is pinched between the thumb pad and the index finger pad. The pencil rests on the middle finger. Can hold something in last 2 fingers. A-OK: 1. Make the A-OK sign 2. drop or tuck the other fingers 3. Place the pencil between the thumb and index finger pads Pinch and flip: 1. Place pencil on table pointing away from you. 2. Pinch pencil and pick it up. Pinch the pencil where you should hold it-on the point where the point meets the wood. 3. With other hand hold the eraser and flip it around to the top side of hand.

23. ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE IN –HAND MANIPULATIONS TRANSLATION SHIFT ROTATION Putting penny in piggy bank More ???????

24. ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE GRASP PATTERNS Playing with playdoh/putty (hiding objects in putty or rolling into log and making shapes) Form circles with thumb and index finger . Playing tug of war with small strings, lace, etc.

25. GEOBOARDS • QUICK MATCH • HOLDING COTTON WITH TWEEZERS OR PASTA • PINCHING THERAPUTTY WITH TWEEZERS TO MAKE SPIKES OF ALIEN • PEGS ON BOARD • NEEDLE AND THREAD • WEIGHTED PEGS

26. STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE VISUAL-MOTOR PERCEPTION • Perceptual worksheets-tracing, mazes, finding hidden pictures, matching • Visual models • Verbal cues • Different types of lined paper • Scanning Tasks ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE FINGER ISOLATION • Use items to manipulate such as tongs to pick up marbles, coins or tokens, cotton balls or any small items. • Cutting activities with scissors • Finger puppets • Keyboarding • Songs that have different hand gestures or isolated finger motions • Pressing gripper with different fingers at a time

27. ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE ACCURACY • Tracing or cutting on straight or curved lines • Rainbow writing-repetitive tracing with different colors • Bold lines • Origamy • Making figure of eight with thread around fingers • Pattern plays /Creative Design • Money game • Skip writing • Quilling • Activities with bindi clubbed with other tasks

28. ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE BILATERAL COORDINATION • Holding and turning paper when cutting • Tying shoes, buttoning, zipping • Stringing beads,Pearls and wires • Stabilizing paper when coloring • Bat and ball activities • Large screw and bolt activities • Brain gym warm ups • Double Doodle • Lazy eight exercises • Pipes and straws • Tracing alphabets • Tracing shapes , stencils , spirograph • Jodo blocks/ Jodogyan

29. THERAPUTTY TASKS • Making small balls , clubbing into big ball with no creases • Making alphabets , shapes, numbers on table on wall • Writing on theraputty • Specifically for strengthening • “We do activities on/against wall”

30. FINE MOTOR ART • Pictures with seeds and beans (use fingers or tweezers) • Tearing, and crumpling paper to glue in the pictures • Paint or draw using an easel • Collages either cutting or tearing the pictures

31. WRIST EXERCISES ??? • THERABAND EXERCISES ??? • BALL GAMES ???

32. BRAIN GYM EXERCISES Double Doodle Lazy Eight Exercises

33. MORE TO GO , ITS NOT THE END • Hook ups • Elephants • Cross Crawls • Thinking Caps (Ears) • Write or Draw with non dominant hand • Massage on tragus • Massage on clavicle

34. What Is The Use Of Brain Gym ? • Brainstem – Reactive state • Vestibular system – Spatial Judgement • Limbic System - Emotions • Neo- Cortex- Cognition

35. IMPORTANT TERMS • AUTOMATICITY –Ability to do things without occupying mind . • LATERALITY – Preference of one side of the body.( left handded, right handded) • DIRECTIONALITY –Top to bottom , left to right • BILATERAL COORDINATION - The ability to use both sides of the body together in a smooth, simultaneous, and coordinated manner. • BILATERAL INTEGRATION - The neurological process of integrating sensations from both body sides; the foundation for bilateral coordination • DEXTERITY – Fine motor skills • BODY AWARENESS- The mental picture of one’s own body parts, where they are, how they interrelate, and how they move. • VISUAL SPATIAL PROCESSING SKILLS- Perceptions based on sensory information received through the eyes and body as one interacts with the environment and moves one’s body through space.

36. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LEFT HANDED WRITERS AND RIGHT HANDED WRITERS • Right handers use the elbow as a pivot point to move pencil across the page • Left handers move their entire forearm to move the pencil across the page

37. PROBLEMS WITH WRITING LEFT HANDED • Smearing ink • Digging pencil into paper • Covering writing and decreased visibility for spacing • Increased fatigue • Decreased stability for writing ACCOMMODATING LEFT HANDED CHILDREN Group left handed children together Teach correct body position (body to right of paper) Teach correct paper position/slant Teach proper grip (tripod), 1 and ½ inches back from pencil tip Keep hand below line that is being written on It is OK for letters to slant slightly backwards

38. THANKS FOR THE PARTICIPATION GOD BLESS