its been really hard to try and get Xander interested in drawing/coloring/writing. he doesn't know how to hold the pencil right and has a really hard time with the fine motor skills involved. Rob and i decided LONG ago that our children would learn how to write well and will never be allowed to hand in sloppy work. funny how those kind of statement seem to blow up in your face.
Xander will have a harder time than other kids in this department. even Judy can pick up a pencil and hold it right. for crying out loud!! so we know that we will have to work on this a lot with Xander. he will hate it, but it is a point we aren't willing to move (much) on.
the problem has been that:
1. he doesn't know how to hold a pencil right. it doesn't seem to make sense to him
2. he is such a perfectionist that it literally will panic him if what he does isn't perfectly lined up or in the lines, etc. to have the across line on his "H" go beyond the uprights is enough to send him over the edge.
i found that the main issue was that he didn't know how to pick up the pencil so it would rest in his hand the right way. he would actually pick up the pencil a different way almost every time. nothing was making any sense to him.
so one morning we were working on it and i was trying to get him to pick up the pencil with his thumb and first finger and "put it to sleep" in his hand. but telling him to "pick it up with your thumb and first finger" or even showing him hand-on-hand wasn't working.
and then it came to me! "T fingers"!! at pre-school they do visual phonics, which is doing a hand gesture that corresponds with a letter and the sound it makes. Xander eats that stuff up and is really good at remembering them. then while sitting there i realized that with the letter "T" the hand gesture is flicking with your first finger off your thumb (basically like flicking a booger...hahaha).
so i asked Xander to show me the letter "T" which he did immediately. then i told him that those where his "T fingers". then i asked him to pick up the pencil with his "T fingers", and he did it! it finally was able to make sense to him! sometimes you just have to work at finding out what makes sense to him, and that was something that was totally clear and easy for him to grasp. talk about HUGE WIN!!
i took a video of it to show his teachers at school so they could use the same strategy. here is the video:
Xander will have a harder time than other kids in this department. even Judy can pick up a pencil and hold it right. for crying out loud!! so we know that we will have to work on this a lot with Xander. he will hate it, but it is a point we aren't willing to move (much) on.
the problem has been that:
1. he doesn't know how to hold a pencil right. it doesn't seem to make sense to him
2. he is such a perfectionist that it literally will panic him if what he does isn't perfectly lined up or in the lines, etc. to have the across line on his "H" go beyond the uprights is enough to send him over the edge.
i found that the main issue was that he didn't know how to pick up the pencil so it would rest in his hand the right way. he would actually pick up the pencil a different way almost every time. nothing was making any sense to him.
so one morning we were working on it and i was trying to get him to pick up the pencil with his thumb and first finger and "put it to sleep" in his hand. but telling him to "pick it up with your thumb and first finger" or even showing him hand-on-hand wasn't working.
and then it came to me! "T fingers"!! at pre-school they do visual phonics, which is doing a hand gesture that corresponds with a letter and the sound it makes. Xander eats that stuff up and is really good at remembering them. then while sitting there i realized that with the letter "T" the hand gesture is flicking with your first finger off your thumb (basically like flicking a booger...hahaha).
so i asked Xander to show me the letter "T" which he did immediately. then i told him that those where his "T fingers". then i asked him to pick up the pencil with his "T fingers", and he did it! it finally was able to make sense to him! sometimes you just have to work at finding out what makes sense to him, and that was something that was totally clear and easy for him to grasp. talk about HUGE WIN!!
i took a video of it to show his teachers at school so they could use the same strategy. here is the video:
2 comments:
Annie you are a fab mom :) Thanks for the blog overhaul. I think I need to do one too...but I caaaaaaaan't, there's too many things.
Annie,That is brilliant.
MOM
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