Activities to Encourage the use of Pressure When Writing

Sometimes children don’t use enough pressure when coloring or writing. This may be because of weakness in the hand muscles or because they don’t have a good “feel” for. The writing utensil in their hand. Here are some suggestions to help a child use more pressure when writing.

• Squeezing a stress ball is good for strengthening the muscles in the fingers and hands.
• Carbon tracing paper can be purchased at a dollar store or on Amazon. Having your child use carbon paper when writing will help them become more aware of how much pressure they are putting on the pencil or crayon.
• Squeezing and manipulating Play Dough is a good hand strengthening activity. You can also hide small plastic beads in the Play Dough and challenge your child to find them.
• Try having adding some weight to the pencil or crayon. This will provide additional sensory feedback and may result in the use of increased pressure.
• Have your child practice writing using dry erase markers on a dry erase board.
• Place a piece of paper over a piece of sandpaper or a mesh sheet that is used for needlepoint. This will provide sensory feedback when your child writes or colors and help them use more pressure when writing.
• Vibrating pens also provide sensory feedback when writing and drawing
• Using a hole punch to make different designs on paper is great for strengthening the hands.