Handwriting Fatigue

my 8 yr old son has this problem. He is now in occupational therapy at school. With him it has to do with his poor pencil grip and he was given some exercises to help strengthen arm muscles. My 3 yr olds OT said it is very common with kids that don't crawl. She suggested push ups on the wall, crawling around through tunnels, along with some other things.

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Playing with modeling clay, playdoh, kneading bread, regular clay. Sewing, threading needles..just about anything which requires fine motor skills would be good 'cross-training' for her hands to help them gain strength. GL!

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Riley's right. Kids also tend to bear down hard when they write or draw. You might coach her a bit when you're sitting with her about easing up on the pressure. When there's a great deal of concentration happening, she'll probably keep forgetting.

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Have her assessed by an occupational therapist, they can identify what issue is causing.the fatigued and can provide.therapy to help. Fatigue can lead.to more than just being slow, it can cause writing failure and lead to.an achievement gap. Writing output is essential for.school success.

Although it my make sense that the school should provide this service, it is unlikely because she must have qualifing diagnosis for special education first to.receive OT.

M.

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Try writing with your non-writing hand. Because you've had several decades to build up strength in it, it will get tired way later than your GD's hand, but still and age before your regular writing hand. It's AMAZING the amount of muscular strength and control writing takes. As adults, we've just been doing it for so many years, we forget.

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P., the problem could be the way she is holding her pencil and gripping it to write. I would highly recommend taking her to an OT, especially one who has some specific experience with this in their practice. My son had a weakness in his right hand, diagnosed by a neurologist, and we went to an OT who specialized in handwriting and gave classes using the Jan Olsen program, Handwriting Without Tears. It helped his hand problem, plus the handwriting issue.

If you need more than the OT, I would recommend a neurologist. The hand problem, if not just a matter of how she's holding the pencil, could be an issue you really need to diagnose.

Good luck,
D.

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It could be a combo of several factors or just one:

*grip is shanked too low on the pencil (near the sharpened area instead of up a little higher where it should be)
*paper is not turned at a correct angle
*feet should be flat on the floor and the table/chair at the right height for her arm to rest comfortably and her back to be straight up comfortably against her chair
*innapropriate finger placement for pencil grip AND/OR pencil held at wrong angle

There are three sided pencil grips you can get at the stationary store that could help. I used the "Cursive First"program to teach my children penmanship and the correct grip and posture is laid out in the book.

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My son had OT for this and he still complains at times about his hand hurting when he does a lot of writing. The triangle grips work..she can also squeeze a stress ball to strengthen her hands. My OT also said there is a correlation of this in kids that don't crawl much (mine didn't!).
Sidewalk chalk, writing on an upright easel chalkboard all help with that wrist positioning for writing.

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she could have low muscle tone and yes this exhausts them. Take her in for OT evaluation and see if that is what is going on and they can help her get stronger and not fatigue so quickly. My son has this and gets therapy three times a week for it and insurance covers it. Does she have any other health or sensory issues? I would bring her in they are dignaosing new thing all the time and you can get help for them too!

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Check how she's holding the pencil, too.

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Maybe she's just not a huge fan of writing sentences and saying that it hurts will get her out of it.
My daughter did the same thing. She's left handed and she tried saying that it was harder for her than the other kids.
That may have been true, but she came from huge family of lefties, and everyone else survived.
Get her some gel pens.
They work best if you have a light touch. Press too hard and they won't work.
Maybe she is gripping and pushing too hard on the paper.

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I agree with some of the others. My hands cramp after a lot of writing. So do my kids, b/c we are so use to typing on keyboards!
But if a couple sentences bother her, she needs correction from someone in the know about how to hold her pencil, sit, where her hand goes, etc....

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Check out One Step Ahead.com They have some pencil grips. Maybe that would help.

God bless!

have her squeeze a tennis ball or squishy ball. It strengthens the hands.
Athletes do that.

good luck,
Susan