What a Difference a Year Can Make!
Say hello to this Awesome Kid who was highlighted a year ago in my blog entry about therapeutic use of the ipad in Occupational Therapy.
At that time he was able to use his full hand with a raking grasp to pick up objects. When pointing, he extended all the fingers in his hand. Scroll down the bottom of the page. Similarly, to color [which he avidly avoided] he would extend [open] all his fingers and trap a marker or crayon in the web space [between his thumb and index finger].
In this blog entry I showed how in the spring of 2014, I was using an infant sock with a small hole, to build motor memory of an extended index finger to point.
With some excellent carry-over from home, this guy was able to point with just a physical set-up in October, and with a single tap-cue in December! No more sock!
Now that he has finger isolation, and in just a year from my original post, all his hand skills are exploding!
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| Hip-hip-hooray for Bilateral Skills! 
Placing Disks
Occupational Therapy Trick:
The best pencil grip adaptation for this guy is a rubber-band! I have not seen this anywhere else so I thought I would share. The rubber band acts as a stop on the pencil, and it requires less maintained hand strength. We have finally got him interested in coloring as he is able to hold the crayon, and generate enough pressure to really color given that rubber band around the tip! This is an over-the-head picture.
Tripod Pencil Grasp [still static],
Ulnar Side of Hand Stable, and
Wrist Extension!
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A big thanks to Awesome Guy's Mom, who is happy to have others benefit from seeing her guy grow!
I am not an occupational therapist but I still love these ideas for an early childhood classroom! It's great to see "Awesome Guy's" growth in one year's time from the infant sock to putting disks in a slot. Nice that his mom was willing to share him with the world. Thank you for this post.
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