Big Crayons or Little Crayons?

24 Aug Big Crayons or Little Crayons?

If your child is in the preschool to elemantary school age range this blog is for you. Many of you remember that large crayon box that you would receive when you entered Kindergarten. The thought process was that larger crayons were better for preschool and Kindergarten goers because they were easier to hold. Larger crayons are not better for small hands! Small hands require small crayons. Take all of those discarded short, broken crayons and put them to good use. Short crayons are one of the very best writing tools for teaching coloring. A child will often naturally use a functional writing grasp when given a short crayon because they are unable to hold the crayon with their entire hand. You can encourage good strengthening using a functional hand grasp while using short crayons. Some other ideas for encouraging the correct functional writing grasp are: golf pencils, “Pip Squeeks” markers by Crayola, short chalk and short dry-erase markers. All of these items should be short and thin. If you still are not seeing your child use a more mature grasp then go shorter on the writing utensil. You will be amazed at the magic trick of seeing your child start using the correct grasp!