1.Visual-spatial skills- Visual-spatial skills help individuals find their orientation in space by taking in information from the world around them and organizing that visual information. This can include poor body awareness or poor visual attention to 2D images in a book.
Copying block patterns help build these skills. Create a simple block pattern (3-block pyramid, 5 block tower, train) and have your child copy the design using their own blocks.
2. Playing “I Spy” while reading a picture book.
Pencil grasp- This can be due to poor hand strength or lack of
fine motor control. Your child may switch hands while writing,
break pencils, or write too lightly. Pencil grasp will change
with age but by 3.5 years a static tripod grasp is ideal for
writing skills.
Fine motor games (stringing beads, pop beads, theraputty) will
strengthen the muscles required for drawing and writing.
Using smaller crayons such as rock crayons and golf pencils
allow your child to manipulate the pencil or crayon more easily,
which discourages them from using too many fingers, pressing too
hard, or scribbling outside the lines.
Ulnar side down! A lot of kiddos color in what we call a digital
pronated grasp, with their elbows up in the air instead of
resting on their paper and the wrist turned downwards. This
particular grasp is known as a transitional grasp as they move
towards a more mature tripod grasp. However, if they do not
transition from this they will tend to write very lightly and
have little control of the pencil. Resting the ulnar (pinky side)
of the arm when writing will help with stabilization.
3. Other reasons can include cognitive delay, low muscle tone,
developmental delay, or poor attention. Which can all be
addressed with your doctor and therapists.