Pincer Grasp Resources

Everyone has been asking me about how I taught Adriana to hold her markers properly in my stories. To be honest with you, it was tons of sensory play activities to practice and strengthen her muscle development. I always love to provide children with sensory bin activities of colours rice, sand, water with various tools (i.e., scoops, tongs, sponges, pipet, etc.). When doing this you are providing them with opportunities to not only strengthen their hand muscles, but also manipulate tools to do what they need them to do during play. For example, if I hold a measuring cup properly I can carry water from one bin to the other or fill a jar with water faster. At any age your child's brain is working hard to problem solve those little details in play. 

     

Arts and crafts is another place that children tend to be using a lot of fine motor skills and mastering those pincer grips. My arts and crafts cart has always been filled with proper tools for little hands. What do I mean? Well, my cart has tons of mini sized markers, crayons, pencils, scissors and pre-writing tools. I started with *these crayons when Adriana was only year old. I found the that they helped start the process of holding an object to write. I slowly worked towards the *triangular large crayons and the *Crayola tripod grip markers. I found these helped strengthen her muscles and encouraged her to grip properly. I allow the child to experiment with the learning tools and do not step in unless they ask for help. Keep in mind that research has shown, children experiment different types of grips and gradually discover an adult grip with one or two fingers on top of the writing tool (i.e., pencil). This maximizes the quality and stability of their writing (adapted from Laura E. Berk, 2008). 

Once she got comfortable, I introduced her to the *large Crayola crayons and *Crayola pip-squeaks broad line markers at her table and on her easel. This allowed her to strengthen those fine motor skills on various angles and allowing her to experiment and understand her spatial awareness. Trying to offer your child sensory play and a few of these writing tools will definitely make a difference in their pincer grasp and written quality. Once they master that skill, they can easily focus on the task at hand such as tracing a line. 

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