what our OT did

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Home : 2003 : September : 17

what our OT did
By ck

Definitely check with your building OT. The OT I worked with would demonstrate the proper tripod pencil grip and then refer to it as "birdy beaking" as in: I hope everyone is birdy beaking their pencils! and she would touch
thumb to pointer finger like a bird's beak. For coloring in, she had the children outline the shape and then go back & forth or up and down, reciting "touch, touch. touch, touch." as they would touch each side. She would have them outline in marker and fill in with crayon (using the same colors). The markers made a large visual cue for where to stop and the crayons would provide enough

resistance that they wouldn't scribble (quite) as fast. Also, when using crayons, if a child "gets stuck" going back & forth in one spot, the paper doesn't become wet and fall apart.
You didn't ask, but for proper scissor grasp (thumbs up), she would put a small sticker on the child's thumb & remind them to keep the sticker side up. "Can you see your sticker? Where's your sticker? Is your sticker face up?" Also "Move the paper, not your scissors" when cutting out shapes. Children often try to cut around curves by moving their cutting hand to weird angles.