It’s quite common to observe a great number of children on the spectrum struggling with handwriting and figuring out the exact way of holding a pen.

Often it’s related to poor concentration, difficulties with motor skills or lack of understanding a reason and meaning of an act of writing.

There are actually much more causes that lead to very serious impairments as the art of handwriting could be a huge effort for an individual with autism. There is no specific explanation confirmed though, it could be motor skills or a struggle to detect and form a letter in a written way. Learning differences like dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia are not unusual in case of autism spectrum disorder.

In our experience, the big issue at the very beginning was to make Achilles understand what is the right way to grip a pencil. We weren’t able for a long time to manage him to use anything that we regularly use for drawing or writing to hold it in a proper way.

He got familiar quite early with letters and numbers but writing them in a correct way was not an easy task for him. After a few tries and instructions, he got frustrated and his motivation was vanishing in a second. He continued to grip the pencil too high, with his fingers crossed unnaturally. In conclusion – one thing is theory and practice is a completely different story.

Then we try to search for a pen that might work as a tutor. A pen that would suggest and do not force the right position of the fingers. A pen that would respect left-right handed predisposition. A pen with an ergonomic, no-slippery grip. Basically unbreakable and easily refillable. A dream.

Stabilo Easyoriginal

Ingredients:

• Stabilo EasyStart
• Handwriting Practice Paper
• Alphabet Writing and Workbook (tracing and writing)

Find son easy tasks and observe your child. Notice which hand does she use mainly to perform manual activities and tasks like cutting, teeth brushing and using cutlery. Maybe the best choice is to purchase and try both-, right- and left-handed pen. Your kid should decide which is more comfy to use. Remember not to scold the child willing to opt for writing with the left, right or both hands! It is not an issue. It’s a brain-based choice and generally, tend to settle around the age of 4.