UPPER EXTREMITY STRENGTH AND POSTURAL CONTROL:

Toni M. Schulken, MS, OTR/L

Correct body position is essential to facilitating fine and perceptual motor skills when sitting. Make sure all students are using a good "writing posture" when starting a lesson. Knees and hips are flexed at 90 degrees and feet are flat on floor. Table top is 2" above the child's bent elbow. Top of chair should be slightly below student's shoulder blade

Signs of Poor Posture and Upper Body Strength/Endurance.

• Works with head on desk/falls off chair
• Tires easily/hand fatigue and perspiration when writing
• Slow speed/clumsy movements
• Presses too hard when writes
• Difficulty completing tasks within allotted time
• Grips pencil too tightly
• Breaks pencil point
• Poor erasures/tears paper
• Awkward/poor pencil grasp

Activities to Promote Good Posture and Upper Extremity Strength.

• Writing on vertical surface facilitates wrist extension which facilitates finger movements needed for writing - have children write on a slantboard or a 3-ring binder to raise writing surface, floor and table top easels, paper or contact paper up on wall, refrigerator magnets, wikki stix on cabinet, shaving cream on wall in bathtub, standing at chalkboard
• Laying on stomach propped on elbows to write and do activities
• Playing with resistive materials such as clay, play doh, therapy putty and silly putty — pinch, pull, roll, stretch and use tools
• Using hole punch to play games such as Pac Man ("chomp" ghosts drawn on paper) for whole hand strength
• Cutting and hole punching various weights of paper
• Stretch rubber bands over pegs and nails to make designs(geoboards)
• Lifting and pushing chairs to designated area
• Wake-up muscles before writing activities with jumping jacks,
• Simon Says involving fingers and thumbs
• Lots of climbing, hanging, wheelbarrow walking, animal walks, hopping on one foot, tug-of-war