Children who write with too much pressure often produce smudged and illegible handwriting. One approach to combatting this problem would be using proprioceptive activities with heavy work to teach them how to regulate their pencil pressure.
Therapists and teachers both agreed that feedback about grip pressure and tip pressure was vitally important, though their opinions regarding methods and settings for feedback varied considerably.
Hand Strength
As children begin learning how to form letters and numbers, their hand strength and grip must be sufficient in order to control the pencil with enough pressure, avoiding smudging, ripping or breaking it. Unfortunately, some children may struggle with maintaining consistent pressure when writing due to sensory processing challenges like decreased proprioceptive input, motor feedback and force modulation.
Kids with these challenges often press too hard when writing or drawing, leading to unintelligible, messy work that is unreadable or smudged. Raising awareness of excessive pressure applied while writing/drawing, as well as addressing sensory processing issues or engaging in resistance activities prior to undertaking writing tasks are all helpful strategies in controlling pencil pressure.
When your child uses a dynamic tripod grip that requires more strength and coordination than a closed fist grasp, it is wise to have them practice both types of grips in order to determine which best meets their task at hand. Once this decision has been made, then you can work together with them to adjust their grip accordingly.
Some children using dynamic tripod grips will tire quickly when writing because their hand muscles are used inefficiently. This may be the result of well-meaning caregivers trying to force their child into writing with three fingers before it is developmentally appropriate, and therefore the child compensates by changing his grip pattern into something less functional.
Weighted pencils can help alleviate some of the pressure they must apply, making their grip easier while leaving dark marks with minimal pressure applied. There are commercially available versions available or you can create your own from rubber washers and rod shaped coupling nuts found at any hardware store. Some children who struggle to regulate grip or pencil pressure may find regular pencils difficult to hold properly due to their large barrel. A grease pencil or brush pen, with its soft tip that leaves dark marks quickly with minimal force applied, may be easier for them to gripping.
Stress balls, fidget toys and therabands (affiliate links) offering graded amounts of resistance are an excellent way to help kids develop pinch and grip strength while increasing range of motion in their hands and building muscle tone that supports an effective pencil grasp. Click here for fun and easy fine motor activities using these tools!
Finger Dexterity
Finger dexterity is an integral component of handwriting skills and should be developed through activities like playing with tweezers, rice play or finger painting. Furthermore, sensory processing activities like kneading dough or touching objects such as pebbles can also improve finger dexterity and handwriting skills.
Finger dexterity refers to using your hands for fine motor tasks like writing, drawing or cutting with ease and precision. This skill is determined by factors like dominant hand preference, postural stability and shoulder mobility – children with poor trunk stability or mobility may struggle to differentiate arm movements from hand or finger movement, leading to large uncontrolled movements that interfere with their fine motor tasks and lead to difficulty performing them effectively.
Vibrating pencil occupational therapy can help your child improve finger dexterity by encouraging finger movement and decreasing their likelihood of gripping their pencil incorrectly. When children grip too tightly, they risk losing control over the pencil, leading to reduced writing speed and quality; with Z-Vibe vibration therapy your child can develop a more comfortable yet efficient grasp that enables faster writing with more accuracy and speed.
Studies on the SensoGrip pressure-sensitive pen have revealed encouraging results: children with handwriting challenges were responsive and enjoyed using this system, showing high levels of enjoyment and satisfaction throughout multiple weeks of using it – suggesting its potential use in pediatric occupational therapy settings.
SensoGrip system provides real-time feedback on pressure, enabling children to monitor their own performance. This data is displayed as graphical information in their mobile app and encouraged to adjust as necessary for legible and fluid handwriting style. Occupational Therapists involved with this study reported finding SensoGrip pen easy and intuitive for use; also finding high acceptance from household environments.
Motor Skills
Motor skills play an integral part of children’s ability to use fine muscles of the hand for writing tools. Children with weak hand and finger muscles may struggle to hold onto a pencil for extended periods, write quickly or produce legible handwriting; furthermore they may have trouble manipulating small objects like beads or puzzle pieces.
Hand-eye coordination is crucial for functional grasp patterns, legible handwriting and using utensils for eating. Unfortunately, children with autism frequently struggle with this aspect of motor skills which can impede activities like catching and throwing balls, fastening buttons or cutting food. Engaging them in occupational therapy that engages their interest may increase motivation to engage in handwriting or fine motor activities such as cutting food.
Pencil pressure is another aspect of motor skills that can have an effect on children’s writing and drawing abilities. Children who press too lightly on the page may struggle with keeping consistent lines or may break their pencils; additionally, their bodies might not register the force they apply when writing or drawing, making it hard for them to control how much force is applied when creating artworks.
Children who are sensitive to objects’ textures may avoid holding them or may use a light grip with pencils, for instance. Squeezing stress balls or playing with therapy putty can provide input into their palms and fingers; firm gripping may feel awkward, so they may alter their grip to avoid hard pencil leads.
An occupational therapist can teach children who struggle to maintain a dynamic tripod grip strategies for building strength and dexterity in the fingers and hands, such as using vibrating pencils and sensory aids like Tran-Quill vibrating pens as motivators to practice maintaining this dynamic grip, including tactile input from palm and fingers for proper finger positioning during handwriting, as well as ways to reduce pencil pressure.
Sensory Integration
Kids experiencing difficulty writing may experience their hands becoming overstimulated and be unable to control how much pressure is applied when writing, often signaling sensory integration difficulties – an approach used to help children interpret and respond appropriately to stimuli which may be distressful or overwhelming.
Sensory integration therapy teaches children how to soothe themselves using sensory techniques and strategies, like self-soothing with touch. It is an occupational therapy approach which addresses underlying issues while improving neural processing; thus making this therapy an excellent intervention strategy for children who demonstrate sensory seeking behaviors, over response or under responsiveness behaviors.
Children facing these difficulties frequently have trouble with tactile processing – the sensory system which processes experiences of touch such as light pressure, firm or deep pressure, static and moving contact, temperature, pain and comfort. Sensory integration therapy offers an effective solution in this regard; vibrating pencils may offer assistance.
Increased tactile input is another effective way of encouraging proprioceptive processing. Proprioception refers to unconscious information from muscles and joints about weight, texture, position, weight distribution and positional aspects of objects in space that allows us to regulate our movements and body posture for handwriting tasks.
For additional proprioceptive input, have your child push a shopping cart, sweep the driveway, dig in the garden, climb playground equipment or play with sand – these activities provide essential proprioceptive input while simultaneously teaching children how to utilize it in writing.
Sensory integration therapy also addresses children’s oral input. Children who chew their collars or sleeves, suck on their fingers, bite pencil eraser tips or seek intense oral input are likely seeking intense oral input through these behaviors – these sensory behaviors may be difficult to stop but sensory integration therapy can teach children other ways of self-soothing themselves.
To encourage kids to write with greater pressure, give them a novelty pencil that requires pressure for its features, such as lighting up or making noise. Children love these tools as a fun way of increasing writing pressure when learning the fundamentals.
