2:35
Angela Kulcsar shares classroom fixes for students who struggle with fine motor skills. Use tracing templates, tape to mark spaces, pre-made labels, and a label maker so students can show what they know without fighting their pencils.
Angela Kulcsar shares classroom fixes for students who struggle with fine motor skills. Use tracing templates, tape to mark spaces, pre-made labels, and a label maker so students can show what they know without fighting their pencils.
Hey all, let's talk about very simple accommodations you can use for students who might struggle with fine motor. When I was in the classroom, this was a common theme. I still wanted to work on fine motor because I wanted my students to learn and grow in those areas, but sometimes it was a bit of a hurdle, especially if a student was doing more complex writing in a smaller area. So So let's talk about some of the things that we can do. Very first thing that we can do is I can provide a tracing option. If the student were to communicate, you know, "7 2 9," and they spoke it, they used their AAC, they used core language to identify it, whatever it was, I can provide a tracing opportunity. I can simply draw it and then allow the student to then trace it. So that is one way if I want my students to be able to trace. Another way, if a student is a complete non-writer, use labels. If you don't have labels, you could use masking tape. That would be perfectly fine. I like to give a variety of options. I actually— I'm stingy because I'm cheap. I like to use labels because they're quick and they're easy, but I tear these and I just stick them on the table and have them ready to go for the learner. So when they get here, they can identify all of the different choices and then they can choose. And so if I have these all across the table in a variety and students are choosing, I can make this as hard or as easy as I like. So really, if I want to just give a field of 2, I could just give a field of 2 and take away the rest of the choices. So here I could very simply identify Just push that right down, and then the students got the answer. This is so fast. This will take a paraprofessional or yourself about a minute. If you don't have labels, your school won't provide them, you can't afford them, that is totally fine. Buy some masking tape. Does the same thing, and it goes a lot farther. It's a lot cheaper. And so most schools have masking tape available to them. That works for time, it works for pretty much everything. Another thing to do, which is a lot more independence, use a label maker. Let the student actually type in the answer, tear off the label, and then put down the answer from the label maker. It's a great way to be able to make some simple accommodations that allow students' knowledge to shine.
