pens/pencils for dyspraxia

rev229

My 10yr old has some degrees of dyspraxia which effects his ability to hold a pen/pencil correctly hence very poor hand writing can anyone recommend some suitable writing utensils or pen grippers and where I can buy such things. Have managed to find some chunky mechanical pencils in staples but any advice would be grateful.

cookie54

my sons has this as well . we got some triangle shape pencil wth grips and they these are also available in colouring pencil as well which helps . we got these in woolworth or poundland or stationer box .. have you talked to your son senco or O.T as they had different grips and bits for ours to try like a sloped desk ........... good luck

rev229

We have been advised to see a OT privately which is impossible, so will ask his SENco if she can refer he has a statement so someone should be able t refer him I hope!

badmumof1

hi rev,
i have no experiance with dispraxia but i do understand about the pen grip
my son is a 11 and half year old lefty and has difficulty holding and using a normal biro so we found this pen for him with a inbuilt grip

http://www.shop-com.co.uk/op/~Stabilo_'s_Move_Easy_rollerball,_RIGHT_handed-prod-10546736?sourceid=363

its a stablio move easy
they come in 2 colors, pink and blue
and both for the left or right handed user
imho these pens are great because of the inbuilt grip so the other students dont notice hes using a grip pen.
infact they all think its cool

if you have a shop near to you called the stationary box they dell them in there for 3.99 or whsmiths do them for 4.99

my sons writing is 100% better and his confidence is returning.

good luck rev and i hope these can be of use to your son

cookie54

the school should have one linked with one or the gp should be able to refer you. i know one of my friends just rang the up and asked for advise and they were sent some guidelines to help them....

titewad_2

Our son has Dyspraxia as well and we had a measure of improvement re his handwriting using the triangular pencils.My wife bought the first lot online and then discovered Asda sell them also.

badmumof1

titewad wrote:

Our son has Dyspraxia as well and we had a measure of improvement re his handwriting using the triangular pencils.My wife bought the first lot online and then discovered Asda sell them also.

are they made by faber castile ??
kinda silver with bobbly sides
how much are they in asdas cos i bought some from whsmiths for 69p each last week !!! they used to be 49p too

i also found going for a lighter colored pencil ie a 3 H better because his writing didnt look so scrubbed on the page

Nenen

I seem to remember the Early learning Centre used to do different kinds of triangluar shaped pencils and pencil grips you can slide over normal pencils. Other than that the school should certainly help.

Some children are helped by tilted table top and/or tilted footrest. I'm sure you could make something if you wanted to try it without too much expense.

The other important thing is to do lots of fun things to help improve pencil and fine motor control, e.g mazes; dot-to-dot pictures; threading beads; building with construction kits like Lego or Connex; Molding things in (cheap home made) playdough; jigsaws etc.

Nenen

Just another thought... a company called LDA supplies things to schools for children with special needs. I just looked on their website and they have a special non-slip tilted desk top for around £40... it should give you the idea of the kind of thing I mean:

http://www.ldalearning.com/scripts/searchcat.php

You could, at a push use an A3 ringbinder file to give a bit of an angle, but it's not the ideal 20% slope.

They also sell pencil grips but you have to buy a minimum of 5 at a time!
HTH

earthmother

My kids are hypermobile - it can affect their motor control in a similar way to dyspraxia (as far as I understand it)

Triangular pens don't work for them - they actually cause more problems - but the Stabilo pens mentioned above do work, as do Yoropens (http://yoropen.colespenco.com/main.html) - both available in larger WHSmiths.

Rachie_B

My son aged 10 also has "dyspraxic tendencies"

he sees an Occupational Therapist and although he does have an irregular grip his handwriting is very neat ( he does sometimes press too hard though ) so she has said in his circumstance to not worry about it and leave it as it is

as we tried all sorts of pens etc and he still favoured his old pencil grip

he does use a sloped writing board in class and this has helped.

He is allowed to do a lot of his work on the PC

I have been told that when he starts secondary school ( this sept !) he will able to do some of his essays / exams etc on the laptop as although his handwriting is neat,and he says its not uncomfortable at the moment he may get pain in his hand / wrist when writing a lot as it isnt the correct grip.

http://www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/

A bit OT but have any of your children / anyone you know been through a dyspraxia treatment eg https://www.dore.co.uk ???

We are looking into it but it is expensive !