gorby928 Report post Posted March 20, 2007 Hi Does anyone know any good books or DVDs that could help with my sons fine motor skills.He is 4 1/2 in reception but the only thing he seems to be having probs with is writing and drawing.I do sit with him and do letters and such dot to dot type books and he can do them but when it comes to free hand he stuggles.I know he is young and Im not a pushy dad,I just thought you guys might have some ideas.Thanks Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Valiant_Skylark Report post Posted March 25, 2007 Hi, You don't seem to have had any replies, so I'll chance my arm with a few tips: Work on gross motor skills too, through play, as these will ultimately help him with his fine motor skills. If you think your child has problems with fine motor skills you could ask for an Occupational Therapy assessment to identify exactly what problems he has got. The OTs would then make suggestions for therapy (or dismiss your concerns). We went NHS, but a private OT assessment might be around �380+ in my area, not including the initial "chat" (say �75). If you look at the website of the Dyspraxia Foundation, you will find references to several books which will have activities to help your son. He is still very young. I'd suggest starting with Carol Kranowitz' books (The Out-of-Sync Child and The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun), as they have good all-round ideas for a young child. Madeleine Portwood's book on Developmental Dyspraxia has some basic exercises and another book, which I admit I haven't read, is "Take Time" (author?), which is supposed to be very good. Start looking into "Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD)", "Dyspraxia" and "Dysgraphia" - just for interest. If problems persist, you could look up the percepto-motor programme, "Write from the Start" by Teodorescue and Addy(sp?), which the school may do in handwriting support classes or 1:1 with a TA? In the meantime, enjoy playing with lots of materials (see loads of ideas listed in Madeleine Portwood's book) eg play playdoh, mud pies, cooking (mixing, rolling and esp kneading dough), finger painting, peg boards, threading with really huge beads and thick shoe laces, large size lego, pouring sand and water, making sand pictures, making marks with thick chalks on walls and tarmac (where they will wash off!), hoopla, etc etc I used to go to a Toy Library and borrow different toys for a small fee. You will find they have loads of special needs toys (or will buy them in if you can argue their value), so this can be a way of getting hold of the things like wobble boards, pedal-goes, larger size dressing-up clothes and other more specific games for developing fine motor skills. Send off for the Rompa catalogue. It has all sorts of products which OTs use (eg slow-motion balls, easy-catch balls, gadgets to help exercise and strengthen hands etc), just so you know what is available, even if you decide you don't need to buy now. Above all, have fun with your son and make all tasks easy enough for him to succeed so that he wants to come back for more (so ignore the age recommendations on games if they depress you). Sorry, don't know any DVDs, but I would recommend shelling out for the CD-rom "WordShark" by WhiteSpace (see Dyspraxia Foundation again). We have a microphone into the computer and so each week I can programme smallest son's spelling lists into the "Private List" section (recording the words that aren't already in its extensive lists) and he then learns his spellings almost painlessly by playing the games and typing the spellings in. My boys both have dyspraxia (one severe and one much milder), but as both much prefer to type I refuse to flog the handwriting these days, and if they can keep a high spelling competence by taking the handwriting element out of the equation - so be it. If you come across anything that might help my boys (your info will ultimately be more up-to-date than mine, if you check everything out), please feed back to me, as any ideas gratefully received back. Good luck, VS Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JoolieDoolie Report post Posted March 25, 2007 My son is 5 yrs old in June and he started school in Sept 06. He wouldn't even pick up a pencil let alone attempt to write/draw anything last summer. I decided not to pressurise him as I had read that many children such as ours have trouble with motor skills. So I brought his little table down and put it in the dining room where he had ready access to it. I put felt tips and paper out so that he could help himself (again without any pressure). Felt tips are easier to use than pencils or crayons. He loves numbers and so I did dot-to-dot numbers ..... I was really amazed when he wanted to do it! At the beginning of the summer holidays he didn't write a thing (or pick up a pencil/felt tip), by the end of the summer holidays writing was his obsession - we progressed onto letters, words etc. He doesn't like drawing, but he does love writing now. Good luck with my tip! Joolie Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gorby928 Report post Posted March 26, 2007 Thanks for the tips guys, my son is getting there slowly ,he is not to bad with the dot to dot stuff and we met with his teacher last week and she seems happy with his progress and said he traces well and is slowly taking a stab at individaul letters.I guess you say nice and slowly does it,I think maybe because we have only been recently told our son has AS I surppose we might be worrying when we dont need to but this is all new to us so you do your best.Thanks again <'> Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
