My special child has an on again, off again relationship with writing instruments. He'll hold a pen in hand, but something about the texture of a pencil or crayons sets off his sense of agitation. During his special needs assessment, he was given a request to simply mark on paper with a crayon and the incident didn't go well AT ALL. Then I remembered seeing a color wheel crayon at the dollar store and I figured, why not?
I purchased a couple of these:
and was able to at least get one into his hand. However, I found that the problem was the flat orientation in addition to the instrument itself. Sensory issues interrupt and impair his ability to look down and write at this time.
He loves the white board, but he's not so friendly with markers, either. Until last Friday, my solution was refrigerator magnets. (Lost in the magic of handfuls of magnets and an open kitchen, he is inspired to report some of the names of the letters and numbers he sees.) Then at the nutritionist's office, he got a piece of chalk in his hand and free access to a child sized chalkboard, and that was it. He manipulated a writing instrument and created pictures which inspired words!
So enough backstory. I'm painting a wall in his bedroom with blackboard paint and supplying him with enough chalk to stay busy. This is a low-tech, low-cost assistive technology that I think will help my little one blossom!
Has anyone else tried this?
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