Fine Motor Webinar

As a primary French Immersion Teacher, I continue to see such a varying degree of skills entering primary I am continuously looking for OT recommended tricks and Apps to meet the needs of those students in my class who seem to struggle with their fine motor skills.As I've mentioned before I have previously attended a Handwriting Without Tears presentation and learned about pencil grip and their program. When shopping for school supplies in August I changed things up and purchased a box of "golf" pencils to begin the year with. It was a "daring" move, but one I don't regret. We went through almost the whole box this fall, but they seemed to do better with the smaller pencils, especially when teaching them the tripod grip. I still have one little guy who I just can't seem to get his pinch.grip and the arches in his palm to work together to have a proper tripod grip. He looks so awkward when he prints, but gets the job done. I do see that when I ask him about his grip, or try to help him achieve a proper tripod grip, he clams up. He's shy, but he really just gives me the look of "please just go away." It was just after Christmas before I gave them a longer pencil. Although I'm still not sure if giving them the red thick Primary Pencils has been the right choice.

I was aware that fine motor skills are precise coordinated movements using joints and muscles of the body to manipulate pencils, crayons etc., I thought it had more to do with the arms down to the finger tips, I didn't realize before this webinar was how much of the rest of the body is involved. Fine motor skills do not just involve using the muscles in your hand and arm; it involves shoulder muscles and having good trunk control, from the inside out. 

OT Referrals do go through our SPT and are made by our Vice Principal and Resource Teacher. As a team member I do hear of the referrals being made and the deadlines being referenced. Interestingly enough, there doesn't seem to be high hopes of ever seeing an OT visit our building for fine motor skills of students who are not already involved in the Learning Centre. I wonder how many are in our board and how many schools are under each umbrella. 

 Here are a few I can see using in my classroom(if I had a class iPad):

Dexteria ($4.99 - Universal app)

Designed in consultation with OTs, this App provides therapeutic hand exercises for students, including dexterity, finger sequencing and individual finger isolation, and control. Tap it, pinch it, write it. I was pleased to note that it supported the Handwriting Without Tears program.  Using a stylus makes it more motivating.

When I looked into Injini, my investigation lead me to My First AAC ($24.99) by Injini. According to my research it is an affordable AAC App. for the iPad that is specifically designed for toddlers and preschoolers with delayed speech or severe speech disorders. My First AAC helps young children to communicate with family, caregivers, teachers and more. 
It was developed in collaboration with SLPs. My First AAC offers icons organized by categories that reflect children’s natural speech development. It kind of reminded me of Proloqui2go. I'd be interested in hearing feedback of anyone with experience with it and how it compared.   The touch screen and large icons make interaction much easier for kids with motor skills deficiencies.You also have the ability to add customized icons, using your own images and I like the idea that you can change the voice settings and corresponding gender of child in icons. There are animated icons with concepts borrowed from sign language. We have a family member with a 2 year old who has some significant developmental delays in his hearing and speech. I an always wondering if any of these programs will ever make it his way and improve his communication skills as he grows. 

A youtube demo:

Juno's Piano ($0.99 - iPad only)

A virtual piano app, it allows students to practice finger control through music. Easy to use. Bilateral hand development. Teaches child to play control finger isolation.