Pre-schoolers can often identify their letters and attempt to form them before their small hands are ready to control a pencil and paper- and they should not be expected to. Listed below are several activities for practicing how to form letters without having to place a writing tool into your child’s hands.

• Flashlight: In a dark room, “draw” a letter on the wall or ceiling using a flashlight. Demonstrate drawing a letter and have your child imitate it.
• Wikki stix (www.wikkistix.com): Use wikki stix to form a letter. Creating the letter by its components (for example, a “D” is made by making a big line and a big curve) is a great way to practice letter formation, without placing demands on immature fine motor skills.
• Air writing: Standing in front of your child, demonstrate writing a letter in the air. Have your child stand beside you or behind you to imitate the same letter.
• Rainbow writing: On a chalkboard, whiteboard, or large piece of paper, write a letter. Have your child trace over your letter using many colors for repeated practice.
• Funny Foam (www.amazon.com): Spray Funny Foam on the wall of the bathtub or on a bumpy cutting board and write a letter. Have your child trace over your letters in the foam soap.
• Pretzel stick: Use a small piece of a fat pretzel rod as a “pencil” and “write” letters on a plate covered in pudding, applesauce, marshmallow fluff, or peanut butter.
• Sand box: Create your own homemade sand box using a shoe box. Using a stick or finger, have your child trace letters.
• Wet-dry-try: This is a technique from the Handwriting Without Tears program. Write a letter on a chalkboard. Have your child dip a tiny piece of a sponge into a small amount of water and use the sponge to erase the letter by tracing over it. Then he should trace over the wet shadow with his finger.  Next, he should “dry” the letter using a tiny piece of paper towel. Last, he should trace over the shadow of the letter using a tiny piece of chalk.

September 18, 2009

Blog written by: Aviva Goldwasser, MS, OTR

& Chaye Lamm-Warburg, MA, OTR, Director POTS

Pre-schoolers can often identify their letters and attempt to form them before their small hands are ready to control a pencil and paper- and they should not be expected to. Listed below are several activities for practicing how to form letters without having to place a writing tool into your child’s hands.

• Flashlight: In a dark room, “draw” a letter on the wall or ceiling using a flashlight. Demonstrate drawing a letter and have your child imitate it.
• Wikki stix (www.wikkistix.com): Use wikki stix to form a letter. Creating the letter by its components (for example, a “D” is made by making a big line and a big curve) is a great way to practice letter formation, without placing demands on immature fine motor skills.
• Air writing: Standing in front of your child, demonstrate writing a letter in the air. Have your child stand beside you or behind you to imitate the same letter.
• Rainbow writing: On a chalkboard, whiteboard, or large piece of paper, write a letter. Have your child trace over your letter using many colors for repeated practice.
• Funny Foam (www.amazon.com): Spray Funny Foam on the wall of the bathtub or on a bumpy cutting board and write a letter. Have your child trace over your letters in the foam soap.
• Pretzel stick: Use a small piece of a fat pretzel rod as a “pencil” and “write” letters on a plate covered in pudding, applesauce, marshmallow fluff, or peanut butter.
• Sand box: Create your own homemade sand box using a shoe box. Using a stick or finger, have your child trace letters.
• Wet-dry-try: This is a technique from the Handwriting Without Tears program. Write a letter on a chalkboard. Have your child dip a tiny piece of a sponge into a small amount of water and use the sponge to erase the letter by tracing over it. Then he should trace over the wet shadow with his finger.  Next, he should “dry” the letter using a tiny piece of paper towel. Last, he should trace over the shadow of the letter using a tiny piece of chalk.

September 18, 2009

Blog written by: Aviva Goldwasser, MS, OTR

& Chaye Lamm-Warburg, MA, OTR, Director POTS

Mornings can be rough for the best of us. For a child who is sensory challenged, it can be particularly difficult to get going in the morning and be ready for school on time. Establishing predictable routines with clear expectations can help your child stay organized and reduce conflict that can arise when you and your child become stressed.

Alarming: Some children need time to themselves before they can handle being around other people, even family members. Get your child his own alarm clock, or two, so he can take responsibility for himself. This can help reduce confrontations that may occur with repeated parental reminders to get out of bed. Another way to get going in the morning is to wake up your mouth. Try a mint sucking candy or drinking from a bottle with a sports top.

Music to match the mood: Play rock music with a heavy beat to get your child up and running. Calming classical music is a good choice for soothing the school jitters.

Slow movers: Set a timer as your child completes his morning routine to help him manage time. For example, if he seems to get lost in the shower, set the timer for 10 minutes and make it clear that he is expected to be out of the shower when time is up.

Wanderers: If your child seems to be wandering around aimlessly in the morning, or seems unsure of what he should be doing, create a visual organizer such as a flow chart with pictures to show what to do and where to go next. Alternate an easy or fun activity with ones that are more difficulty or dreaded to perform. Include your child in the process by drawing the pictures and organizing the sequence.

Rewards: Make a sticker chart and award a sticker to reinforce good behavior. For example, if your child got out of bed on his own or got out of the shower in a timely fashion. Plan with your child how many stickers he needs to earn a small prize.

Blog written by: Aviva Goldwasser, MS, OTR

Chaye Lamm-Warburg, MA, OTR, Director POTS

Mornings can be rough for the best of us. For a child who is sensory challenged, it can be particularly difficult to get going in the morning and be ready for school on time. Establishing predictable routines with clear expectations can help your child stay organized and reduce conflict that can arise when you and your child become stressed.

Alarming: Some children need time to themselves before they can handle being around other people, even family members. Get your child his own alarm clock, or two, so he can take responsibility for himself. This can help reduce confrontations that may occur with repeated parental reminders to get out of bed. Another way to get going in the morning is to wake up your mouth. Try a mint sucking candy or drinking from a bottle with a sports top.

Music to match the mood: Play rock music with a heavy beat to get your child up and running. Calming classical music is a good choice for soothing the school jitters.

Slow movers: Set a timer as your child completes his morning routine to help him manage time. For example, if he seems to get lost in the shower, set the timer for 10 minutes and make it clear that he is expected to be out of the shower when time is up.

Wanderers: If your child seems to be wandering around aimlessly in the morning, or seems unsure of what he should be doing, create a visual organizer such as a flow chart with pictures to show what to do and where to go next. Alternate an easy or fun activity with ones that are more difficulty or dreaded to perform. Include your child in the process by drawing the pictures and organizing the sequence.

Rewards: Make a sticker chart and award a sticker to reinforce good behavior. For example, if your child got out of bed on his own or got out of the shower in a timely fashion. Plan with your child how many stickers he needs to earn a small prize.

Blog written by: Aviva Goldwasser, MS, OTR

Chaye Lamm-Warburg, MA, OTR, Director POTS

Keyboarding is an important skill for children and adults alike. It is an essential form of communication and perhaps surprisingly, requires many of the same underlying components as handwriting- – accuracy and speed. Both skills require a strong sense of where the arm and body is in space. While handwriting requires the muscles to learn 26 letter formations each for upper case and lower case letters, typing requires the child to establish accurate finger position and placement that becomes so automatic that it is executed without looking.

When learning to type, it is a good idea to keep the practice interesting and varied by incorporating keyboarding games into the repertoire of practice. Similar to handwriting practice, it is best to practice for short periods with a high degree of accuracy on a consistent, regular basis, preferably daily.

Some of the advantages to keyboarding exercises and games are that practice makes perfect-or at least improves performance. Continued practice will increase speed, efficiency, and accuracy of typing. Block practice has been shown to provide the foundation for learning a new motor skill. Keyboarding games reinforce learning so typing becomes incorporated into real-life situations. Programs for keyboarding games and exercises allow you to start with homerow keys (asdf jkl;), or increase the challenge by adding other keys to the homerow keys. Many of the games will reinforce a left-to-right pattern, which is essential for good handwriting.

It is important to make sure that the computer workstation is at an appropriate, comfortable height for your child and that he is sitting in a chair that offers adequate back support (See our blog from September 15, 2008, entitled “My Back is Breaking & Other Perils of Modern Life” for more tips on setting up an ergonomically correct workstation). Encourage your child to take frequent rest breaks, every 20 minutes, to stand up and stretch to avoid eye strain and muscle fatigue.

Tips for improving keyboarding:

1.     Place a keyboard skin (available on amazon.com) over the keyboard to avoid peeking so that your child learns the placement of keys, avoiding the “hunt and peck” method

2.     Encourage your child to say each letter aloud as he types it to facilitate multisensory learning, learning that occurs through more than one of our senses, which is known to be more effective and long-lasting

3.     Use mental imagery, a powerful learning tool, to imagine the keyboard in front of you and type with eyes closed.

The following is a list of websites that offer free online typing exercises and games for kids. Variety and motivation are key.

1.     www.powertyping.com

2.     www.freetypinggame.net

3.     Dance mat typing:www.bc.co.uk/schools/typing/

4.     www.learning2type.com

5.     www.learninggamesforkids.com

6.     www.hubpages.com

7.     www.freeonlinetypinggames.com

8.     www.computerlabkids.com

9.     www.gamequarium.net

The following is a list of some of the favorite, “tried and tested” games for keyboarding practice from the websites listed above:

1.     Space Invaders

2.     Save the Sailboat Race

3.     The Frogs are off Their Diet

4.     Outerspace Fleet Commander

5.     Martian City Defender

6.     Meteor Typing Blast

7.     Cup Stacking Typing

8.     AlphaAttack

9.     Typing Bubbles

Stay tuned for next week’s blog as we discuss why it is still essential to write well in the 21^st century.

Blog written by: Aviva Goldwasser, MS, OTR

Chaye Lamm-Warburg, MA, OTR, Director POTS