Diving into handwriting before warming up is like running a marathon without stretching first. Your muscles will be stiff, your body will not move as smoothly, you will fatigue quickly, and your brain-body connection will be sluggish. But when you prepare your body by warming up the muscles, stretching the joints, and bringing awareness to your movements, your body will be in a "ready" state. Ready to run a few miles or, in our case, ready to grasp the writing tool and produce more fluid and accurate movements.
Here are some quick and easy "warm-ups" that you can do with your child to get them ready to write!
> Use tongs, clothespins, or tweezers to pick up objects. This helps wake up those tiny hand muscles and prepares fingers for a pencil grasp.
> Play with play dough or clay. Roll, pinch, and shape the dough to strengthen finger and hand muscles.
> Play a game with small pieces, such as Hi-Ho Cherry-O, Operation, or Lite-Brite. This is good practice for the fingers to manipulate small objects.
> Use scissors to cut paper or playdough. This wakes up those bigger hand muscles and gets the body ready for coordinating both hands.
> Build and take apart Legos. This warms up finger muscles and uses both sides of the body.
> String beads on a pipe cleaner or thread. This promotes coordination and grasp of the fingers.
> Do a maze or coloring page. This allows the hands to warm-up before actual letter writing occurs.
These are just a few of the many ideas you can use with your child to prepare them for handwriting. If you do tutoring sessions with Handwriting Solutions, you will see us spend about 5 minutes warming up our finger and hand muscles before we write. Getting our hands ready to write is essential for handwriting progress and success.
(Items above are linked to an Amazon Associate account. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)
תגובות