HWvideo2

Aloha. Mary Koska here with Ohana Ot and this is the second of a three part video series on how to alleviate some handwriting problems that cause fatigue and slow writing. So today is all about do's and don'ts. So the first thing that I do not want you to do is have your child in a chair where they cannot have their feet flat on the floor. That's a big problem. So make sure the chair fits. You can put something under their feet to help. Number two, do not have them sitting in a chair that's so deep that they can't put their right rest their back on the back of the chair. So they need to be able to put their back on the back of the chair and their feet on the floor. Very important. And number three is to make sure that the table height is correct. It should be about elbow height to be comfortable. It's really important. I worked over 17 years in schools and I would. It's probably the number one thing that they asked me to help with is handwriting grasp. And I can remember so many situations where the reason the child was struggling had to do with furniture. So for one example, they said this little girl, she's just really tight and up on her knees and having so much trouble. And I went in there and looked at her and the chair was really low and the table was really high. The only way she could reach the table was to be upon her knees. So sometimes the most obvious things are overlooked. So be sure to look at the sitting position. All right. Three do's do use a pencil grip. It really can help children quite a bit. This, this is one that, that I like quite a bit. It's called the claw and you can get it at a company called TheraPro. T H E R E T H E R A P R O and you just, it's like little cups for your thumb and your fingers and it helps the fingers know right where to go. I've probably gotten some of the best results from this writing graph, this grip, but there's lots of different ones in our video series. We go in a lot more depth in different grips. Another thing you can do is angle the paper. This makes a big difference because the paper should be in line with the arm. So if I move this paper to be right handed, it would be this way so that I can pivot from the elbow to right. I really notice it since I'm a left handed person because everybody hands me the receipt to sign. Going the other way and having your paper the wrong way develops for lefties like a little bit of a hooked grasp because they're just trying to see what they're writing. So do make sure the paper is going the right way. Straight isn't good. It needs to be the same in line with the arm. Okay, Number three thing to try is get some carbon paper. You can get it in an art store and do layers of paper and have the child write so they get some feedback on how hard they're pressing. How many layers does it go through? That can be really helpful. So I've explained some do's and some don'ts and give them a try. If they work, great. If not, if you need a little more help, we're here to help. Give us a call. Click on the link below and you can get some more information on some other things that will be helpful. And you shouldn't wait. Because this is such a personal thing for children, their ability to keep up with their peers, keep up in the classroom and write is such an emotional issue. The longer you wait to help them, the more that stuff just brews inside them and then they, their self esteem just tanks. So the sooner they develop a good handwriting grasp and they're feeling comfortable and they're not getting so tired from squeezing so tight, the better. So in our next, in our third video, there will be. Watch it to the end. There will be a special gift for you and I look forward to seeing you in that video. Aloha.