Children with hypermobile joins have too much movement in their joints. These children find handwriting difficult because:
- They have low muscle tone.
- They use an adapted pencil grip to accommodate the increased flexibility in their hands. Often this type of grip does not allow for finger movement, hence the child use more wrist movement for moving the pencil on the paper. This can be tiring and cause ache in hands and wrist.
- They may have tightness in the shoulder muscles that affect on their ability to move their hand across the paper.
If you child has hypermobility and it has impact on his/her handwriting skill you should see an occupational therapist. Hypermobility is not something to worry about.
How Occupational therapist will help:
- Managing the pain during writing but improving the hands and shoulder muscle strength.
- Using an adapted pencil grip to minimise too much finger joint flexion.
- Using tools which can develop hand strength and hand control skills.
- Avoid keeping joints in the same position for long period of time.
- Using a desk slope can further improved wrist positing for writing.
- Using chunky pen and pencil will help.
- Hand warm up before starting writing.