Children who write with too much pressure often don’t have enough wrist stability, leading them to compensate by using their arm to steady the pencil – leading to tight grips and white knuckles as a result.
OTs in this study discovered the SensoGrip pen to be effective at drawing children’s attention towards handwriting pressure and measuring it objectively, while also being thoroughly enjoyed by them for several weeks of therapy sessions.
Using a Vibrating Pen in Therapy
If your child struggles with messy handwriting or writes too softly or hard, a vibrating pen may make an incredible difference. The extra weight (vibration) helps them become more aware of their hand and finger movements as they grip onto their pencil more securely, helping to form letters and lines more accurately. These pens also allow children to develop intrinsic muscles essential for grip strength and fine motor control – providing invaluable benefits!
If they are using their entire arm to manipulate a pen, this may be an indicator that they need to focus on developing shoulder and wrist stability and decoupling arm movement from hand/finger movements. Grading their pressure levels can also be helpful; brush pens that leave dark marks with minimal pressure application are great ways to encourage this; similarly mechanical pencils can easily break under heavy pressing.
Your Z-Vibe can also be turned into a vibrating crayon with the special tip designed for this purpose, providing more oral input or satisfying their need to chew erasers or hair! Brick Tip or Bite-n-Chew tips may also encourage firmer pencil grips as they provide additional resistance. Warning: Please be aware this product contains small parts as well as batteries; therefore it must always be used under supervision.
Squiggle Wiggle Writer
This engaging pen vibrates as it moves, helping children learn a tripod grip (pinkie, index and middle fingers wrapped around the barrel). Triangular in shape and lightly weighted for firmer grasping, its motorized pen creates circles of different sizes as its user adjusts angles and pressure settings – tight squiggles closer to paper while wider ones higher up on a surface or higher up the ladder! Operates on one AA battery; comes complete with color ink cartridges (Ages 4+). (AA batteries not included). (AA batteries required; comes complete with color ink cartridges – Ages 4+). (AA Battery Included; Ink Cartridges included with color cartridges). (AA Battery Included; Age 4+)
I particularly appreciate this tool as it’s more forgiving than traditional markers or pens, which can be harsh on young writers’ fingers. Additionally, it makes cleanup much simpler.
Vibrating Pen Therapy Activities
Children and adults struggling with messy handwriting, poor letter formation or pressing too softly often benefit from using weighted pens such as the Squiggle Wiggle Writer or similar vibrating pencils to provide regulated input. Weighted pens such as these help develop children’s grasp, pressure control and awareness of how their hand and fingers move during writing sessions.
Proprioceptive input provided by an added weight can help a child maintain an appropriate grip and build stronger hand and finger strength while decreasing pencil pressure.
Start slowly when using a weighted pencil in order to avoid fatigue of hands and fingers. Experts advise beginning with no more than 15-20 minutes per day of active usage before increasing as the child or adult becomes familiar with using their pencil correctly.
If you are having difficulty finding an adequate vibrating pen, creating your own may be possible by adding weight to an existing pencil or pen. The amount of weight added should depend on hand size, age and strength as well as personal preferences of children and adults alike. A DIY Vibrating Pencil may also be used with most pencil grips without interfering with its weighted part of the pen.
Use a brush pen with its soft tip that leaves dark marks with minimal pressure applied, or tissue or newspaper that tears easily if too much pressure is applied, to show children how to gauge how much pressure should be used when writing.
Vibrating Pen Therapy Tips
Some children struggle with writing because they cannot control the amount of pressure used when writing, either writing too softly or pressing down too hard, breaking pencil tips or tearing paper. A vibrating pen or weighted pencil may provide help here; providing proprioceptive input that allows children to feel where their hand is in space while providing sensory input that encourages more controlled movements while helping the child focus on their task at hand.
Vibrating pens can help some children focus and relax, especially those with attention difficulties or sensory-seeking behaviors such as ADHD or autism. Children can fidget with them while working on tasks like tracing, following mazes or letter formation.
Vibrating pencils can also teach kids to adjust the amount of pressure they use when writing. If they are pressing too hard, try switching up pencil types or try using a brush pen with soft tips which leave dark marks with minimal pressure – these tools provide great opportunities to teach gradation of pressure as children learn how to write!
Option #2 is using a Z-Vibe pencil adapter (sold separately), which turns any standard pen or pencil into a vibrating sensory writing tool with smooth vibrations that can be felt in the hand but won’t impact writing or drawing itself. These vibrations may help improve rote motor skills, decrease grip force, normalize writing speed and dexterity, increase kinesthetic awareness of hand use, as well as provide soothing sensory feedback.
