{"id":344817,"date":"2024-11-24T19:00:48","date_gmt":"2024-11-24T19:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/thumb-mobility-essential-for-handwriting\/"},"modified":"2024-11-24T19:00:48","modified_gmt":"2024-11-24T19:00:48","slug":"thumb-mobility-essential-for-handwriting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/thumb-mobility-essential-for-handwriting\/","title":{"rendered":"Thumb Mobility, Essential for Handwriting"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to graphotherapists’ observations, the children they see increasingly have difficulty moving their thumb<\/strong>, even though grip and opposition movements of the thumb are performed correctly. Here’s a closer look at the thumb’s role in learning to write, its mobility, and the exercises designed to train and develop it.<\/p>\n

Thumb motor skills in writing<\/h2>\n

Unlike the other fingers, the thumb has two phalanges<\/strong>, which articulate with the first metacarpal bone. Flexion and extension movements are driven by the intrinsic and extrinsic muscles<\/strong> of the hand, which allow precise gestures to be made.<\/p>\n

Yet the quality of handwriting depends directly on finger movement<\/strong>: once the pencil is properly held between the thumb and middle finger, it’s the flexion of the thumb<\/strong> that produces the up-and-down movements on the page. Combined with the lateral movement of the arm<\/strong>, this allows the basic shapes of cursive writing to be traced.<\/p>\n

The wrist, overworked in children with difficulties<\/h2>\n

When finger motor skills aren’t developed enough, the wrist compensates<\/strong> for this gap: handwriting shows larger, less precise letter shapes<\/strong>. Not to mention that this movement is slower<\/strong> and can potentially cause pain<\/strong>, which may spread as far as the shoulder.<\/p>\n

In babies, the grasp reflex<\/strong> influences the development of overall hand motor coordination, grasping, and holding objects such as a pencil. If this primitive reflex<\/a> is not fully integrated, it can affect the handwriting gesture<\/strong>, creating tension or slowness. Like a pebble in a shoe, it doesn’t stop the child from knowing how to walk, but it forces them to find alternatives that are less than satisfying, or even uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

Exercises used by graphotherapists<\/h2>\n

In cases of handwriting difficulties<\/a>, a graphomotor assessment<\/strong> can highlight the areas that need work. As a general guide, your child has good thumb mobility<\/strong> if the pad of the thumb touches the pencil, if the thumb moves while writing while the wrist stays at rest, and if the handwriting is small enough with a clean, steady line.<\/p>\n

If any of these points isn’t yet mastered, whether or not dysgraphia is involved, graphotherapists recommend small exercises to strengthen the finger muscles<\/strong>. The goal is to help integrate the underdeveloped grasping<\/em> reflex. These fine motor activities can include: modelling clay, scrunching up paper, marble games, scoubidou\/lanyard weaving, etc.<\/p>\n

Of course, for a more precise and personalised assessment of your child’s difficulties, don’t hesitate to get in touch with a <\/strong>graphotherapist on the Ora-Visio platform<\/strong><\/a>: while they specialise in DYS disorders such as dysgraphia, they also help children without learning disorders overcome their difficulties with handwriting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to graphotherapists’ observations, the children they see increasingly have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":344818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[331],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-344817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-handwriting-therapy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}