Who requires Fine Motor Support? 

Your child may require support with fine motor skills if you or the teacher have noticed difficulties with speed or legibility of printing, poor/awkward pencil grasp, difficulties with letter learning or difficulty with functional fine motor skills such as buttons and laces, manipulating knife and fork or opening lunch containers.

What may treatment include? 

Therapy would begin by understanding the underlying issues that may be causing the fine motor problem. By understanding the concerns first, we can then offer explanations to you, as well as address and treat the challenges. Fine motor treatment will include fun activities, such as the use of putty, shaving cream and finger puppets, in addition to writing tasks that are client-focused, motivating and rewarding. As with any of our therapy plans, we always offer a range of options from 1:1 weekly treatment or a more consult based option with a focus on parent training and home programming.

Why OT? 

Our OTs are experts at teaching printing to kids with a variety of needs. Many young learners are either not taught how to size or form their letters, or they were not quite ‘ready’ for the large amount of perceptual information when it was taught to them. As a result, their internal concept of the way the letters go on the lines is skewed, which can lead to very messy printing.

Younger clients may benefit from our individual treatment, based on well recognized programs such as Handwriting without Tears. Kids get a sense of mastery when they can print legibly enough to reach what they wrote.

With older children we often hear parents say that “there is just some disconnect between what’s in their brain and what comes out their hand.” If that is a puzzle for you, let us help you.

OTs are the professional experts for assessment of difficulties with written expression. We can provide standardized and observational assessments to figure out where the writing process is breaking down. Then we can work together to improve your child’s fine motor skills.