Ideas for building upper body and hand strength

[Anonymous]

In terms of playing:

- Modeling Clay which could be reused

- Going to area playground in non-busy time and encouraging climbing and related activities on structures

- Finding a simple routine with hand weights that could be "child sized" with focus on upper body

- For visual eye/hand coordination starting with large and then going to smaller puzzles - and there are actually academic related ones as our twin granddaughter's have them - of world continents, of US states etc.

- When our daughter was in early teens, we started piano and that really helped with differentiation of fingers, visual motor skills and building general hand strength. Plus it was a nice activity for her. We were able to find the right teachers who understood our goals.
***This would also help him with keyboarding skills which he may need to use if he finds his hands tire more with pen and paper.

- Rescanned the posts, and I can definitely say that a key life skill is the "pincer grip" to be able to button one's shirts. I never pushed it and now must address it. To help with that picking up and putting coins in a bank slot. Or starting out with large buttons as on a coat and working backwards in size.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP. Ours is also mild and is upper body, core strength, and bilateral coordination.

I've learned a lot from the HyptoniaHOPE group on YahooGroups.

Does your child have other issues, clumsy? Lack of focus? Impulsive?

Because ours has other issues I'm pursuing a neurology consult next. Geneticists also recommended by that group...but sometimes a cause is not found so you just treat the symptoms.

Thanks much. Slightly clumsy with hands. No impulsivity or lack of focus, no ADHD. Developmental neuropsychologist didn't think there was anything major but haven't considered a neurologist. Will look into the HypotoniaHOPE group. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

One of the things I did last year... and I'm going to have to start it again ... is thumb wrestling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumb_war
Each day before school I would thumb wrestle my son (both hands). I would almost always lose and he would have to use his thumb to wrestle my thumb so I couldn't pull it out. It uses a lot of thumb muscles to keep me from pulling my thumb out.

I told the OT about it and she liked the idea.

[Anonymous]

OP, my son sounds a lot like yours. we are getting an eval through DCPS soon. following along...