The writing utensil grasp when not corrected in pre-school stage or early primary grades, not only it leads to bad handwriting but also long writing during examination becomes painful as shown in the following collage (Read the pictures to get the sense of the problem). However, creating a thicker grasp point using a paper strip wrap can ease the problem to some extent.
For children with special needs, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution for assisted pencil grip-aids or ergonomic writing utensils, (pen, pencil, brushes, crayons) since hand shapes and sizes of children with under-developed fine motor muscles and stiff joints of hands differ vastly. Some ergonomic adaptation have been shown in the adjoin sketch.
Designing right pencil grip-aids reduces the risk of distorting fine motor muscles and causing needless hand fatigue.
Special educators must pay attention to following three aspects to modify writing utensils or ergonomically design them for children with special needs.
·Posture: starting with and practicing with a good writing posture by putting non-dominant hand across in front of the writing surface
·Grip Type: Holding the writing utensil in a tripod position comfortably with designed gripping aid between the thumb, forefinger and middle finger with experimentation.
·Handedness: A left hander may prefer a different writing utensil than to a right hander.
As part of readiness for writing, there is a dire need to pay attention to designing of the writing utensils ergonomically to avoid unhealthy stress, tiredness, pain and other damages to children’s hand.
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