Many children and young people don’t enjoy pencil work, but this is more common in those with Autism, and can be the source of lots of frustration when you know your child is absolutely bright enough to be able to do the work, but the request to ‘write’ is the real barrierThose on the Autistic Spectrum often have differences with their fine motor skills, and sensory processing difficulties mean that holding a pencil may actually be uncomfortable - it might hurt their fingers, or they aren’t sure how much pressure to put through it.
Writing and mark making might be spidery, large and ill-formed. Delays in gross motor skills also mean that muscles have to work much harder to sit in a good position to hold a pencil and mark make, and proprioceptive sensory differences mean that they may struggle to keep themselves seated, still and grounded in order to complete the task. Difficulties in motor planning mean that, although the child might recognise the letter and know what it should look like, they cannot recreate it as the message from brain to hand, and vice versa, gets confused.
This is often combined with an anxiety of managing the demand from us, needing to process our
verbal instructions and sequence the instructions and actions correctly. If you don’t enjoy mark
making or writing, and haven’t wanted to take part then you will feel a sense of failure, and become
understandably despondent towards the activity. If you are very rigid in your thinking it might be
difficult to manage making mistakes and children might re-write and rub out many times.
This is where we see the cycle start - writing hurts and I can’t control my pencil, I’ve done it wrong,
I’m not going to write now, I’m further behind my peers, I hate writing because it makes me feel silly
and still hurts, writing makes me anxious....
There are some things we can try:
• Explore writing and mark making tools until you find one that is comfortable - chunky pencils, bark
pencils, rubber band grips, biro, white board pen, paint brushes, fingers, rollers
• Work on fine and gross motor skills away from the table top work - big mark making on the floor/
windows, use sensory resources like corn flour, sand, water and bubbles, playdoh and putty
• Forget the mark making for a while, concentrate on fun finger gym games
• Explore work positions - try standing up, laying on the floor, sitting on a yoga ball, knee sitting
• Make writing tasks clear and explicit - proved a box or template with clear lines, some children
benefit from letter grids (you can use squared paper), so they know where to put their letters
• Use task management boards - do they know where to start, what the end point is, what they
need and how many lines you expect from them? Give a visual example
• Make use of technology. Type, record, video, dictate. This is the way of the future, and where
writing will always be an essential life skill; our youngsters will probably use much more tech than
we ever did!
• Make tasks achievable - help the child to be successful and start to build resilience by ensuring
they can complete it, even if you know they can do more. Reward instantly and with something
personal to them - Minecraft tokens, talk time with a special person...
• Make sure the resources are available - ensure that everything they need for the task is
immediately available and visible. Any added social demand in having to ask for something might be
the tipping point
• Remove the other demands - if you know your young person doesn’t manage noise well, take the
work task to a quiet environment. If you know they don’t work well right before lunch, then don’t
schedule the challenge for that time
Make it fun.
Make it meaningful.
Make it personal.
Written by Vicky Brewer - Autism Consultant, Education Advisor & Specialist teacher - Qualified Solution Focused Practitioner &
Vicky now works with over 70% of our Sennies families on a private basis and trains new and seasoned Sennies weekly. The feedback from Families and Sennies has been incredible and we are extremely happy to be working with Vicky!!
Everyone within the Sennies community can book sessions with Vicky at a discounted rate due to our partnership! Please see below
SERVICES AVAILABLE:
Families
Ø SENNIES offer - Family bespoke Session = £35 per session, 1 hr
Ø Bespoke Family Support Package - email info@sennies.co.uk for a quote
Please get in touch with Sennies to book in a free 15 minute family consultation with Vicky to find out more or for free advise on a single topic you would like to address.
Autism Training Packages for our Sennies - Led by Vicky through Zoom
Ø Short Course £35 per Sennie , 1.5hrs
Ø Full Autism Awareness, including practical strategies to Support children and young people on the Spectrum, £65 per Sennie, 3hrs
Ø Group training £25 per Sennie, 1.5 hours (max 6 Sennies per session)
If you are currently looking for SEN Childcare please contact Georgia directly on georgia@sennies.co.uk as we have Super Sennies available to cover all of your SEN childcare needs.
07312 099105
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