Why your child presses "too lightly" when writing!

"5 year old Cody writes so lightly that we can't read his work! He doesn't seem to know how hard to push on the pencil and is just not interested in writing or drawing!"

Cody's mum is confused because he loves playing with Lego and didn't seem to have a problem with his fine motor skills.  She is worried that he is just not going to cope with "big school" and all the writing that needs to happen there.

Too little pencil pressure!

Why do some children press "too lightly" when writing?

1. Sensory Processing or Modulation Difficulties.
Everyday, we receive information from our senses through our eyes, nose, mouth, ears, skin and joints.  We use this information to interact with the people and the environment around us.  Each of us process this sensory information in different ways and our brains need to organise this information so that we can function in everyday situations such as in the classroom, at home or the playground. 

Proprioception is our "sense" which informs us of about our own body, how our body parts relate to one another, how much our muscles stretch, the speed of our movement in space, our timing as well as the amount of force our muscles produce.*

Poor body awareness and proprioception may result in difficulties manipulating objects such as pencils for writing.  Children may have a weak grasp and have difficulties grading the amount of force to apply (ie. too much or too little pressure to the pencil).

An over responsive child may avoid the "feel" or touch of objects. They may avoid or lightly "hold" pencils or other writing tools.  This makes it difficult to apply adequate pressure to the page when writing or drawing.

A child with poor registration may have difficulty "registering" how the pencil feels in their hand. They don't know how to control the pencil and it is not an extension of movements made by the hand. 

2. Weak Hand and Finger Strength
Children with weak hand and finger muscles may have difficulty grasping a pencil effectively or for a sustained period of time.  They may have difficulty applying enough pressure, write quickly enough, write for a long enough duration or write enough on the page.  These children may swap hands regularly or just drop the pencil for "no reason".

Read more about hand and finger strength in a recent article.

Tried and Tested OT tricks when a child presses "too lightly" when writing!

OT intervention for pencil pressure provides a child with ways to be aware of their pencil pressure, practise techniques to increase their force when it is too light and provides ways to  compensate when they struggle to grade their movements.

1. PREPARE THE BODY FOR WRITING
Before running a race, we need to prepare our body by training our muscles.  We need to stretch, practise aspects of the race, be aware of the environmental conditions and know what is involved with running the race.

In handwriting, we need to also prepare the body and understand what is required. Activities which provide "heavy work" or proprioceptive input to skin, muscles and joints can prepare the body for writing. This may include hanging from monkey bars, jumping on the trampoline, wiping a whiteboard clean or lifting school chairs onto the table.  Find more"heavy work" ideasHERE.

There are also ways to increase the "heavy work" and proprioceptive input to fingers and hands prior to writing.  This may include squeezing some play dough, using tongs or tweezers to transfer items or doing a variety of finger exercises.  Find my ideas for "heavy work for little fingers" HERE and if you didn't link over to my recent article about building hand strength, then you can find that HERE for more ideas for preparing hands for writing .

2. HELP CHILDREN TO BE AWARE OF THEIR PENCIL PRESSURE

a) Change the Writing Tool

• Try a weighted pen or pencil -This can be achieved by purchasing a heavy weight pen or pencil.  Pencil weight writing aids (see photograph) or a collection of nuts/bolts may also be added to pencils.  This extra weight provides increased proprioceptive feedback to the user, giving information about how the pencil is moving across the page.  "Weighing" down the pencil also naturally pushes it onto the page with less force needed to write or draw.  An alternative to this is to have your child use a small hand or wrist weight whilst writing.
• Try a brush pen.  These pens are used for calligraphy and "fancy" writing. Encourage your child to experiment with pressure placed on the page.  They can practise pressing down harder to exert more force and produce bigger/darker strokes and reducing the pressure placed on the pen to produce thinner lighter strokes.
• Try a squiggle pen or vibrating pen. These pen move and shake as the child "writes" providing proprioceptive feedback (don't expect neat writing  though!).

b) Change the Writing Surface

• Try sand paper (or other textured paper) placed underneath ordinary paper.  This may be secured with a clipboard and provides proprioceptive feedback with the "bumps" felt by writing or drawing over this paper.
• Try rubbing a crayon over rubbing plates. Young children love this activity and enjoy seeing the hidden picture revealed as they rub the crayon.  This encourages firm pressure placed on the page to produce a result and proprioceptive feedback is provided whilst rubbing.  Children can see and feel how much pressure to apply to get a result . (You could also try rubbing over coins, leaves, bricks, tree bark and experiment with different textures).

c) Other

• Try colour grading activities. Have your child "colour-in" with a lead pencil.  Have them try to achieve shades from very dark to light by applying different amounts of pressure to the picture.

3. HELP CHILDREN TO INCREASE THE PRESSURE APPLIED TO THE PAGE

a) Change the Writing Tool

• Try a stylus with an ipad or tablet.   This requires some "pushing" onto the screen to write or draw.   (A word of caution: check your child's wrist position and consider placing the ipad/tablet on a slope.)
• Novelty light-up or noise making pencils/pens.  There are some pencils which require increased pressure placed on them to activate a light or a noise. These can be a fun way to help with increasing pencil pressure.

b) Change the Writing Surface

• Try carbon or copy paper.  This requires a child to "press" down so that their work is copied onto to the pages underneath.  Children love to see their work "duplicated" using this paper.

4. HELP CHILDREN TO COMPENSATE FOR NOT APPLYING ENOUGH PENCIL PRESSURE.

a) Change the Writing Tool

• Change the Pencil - In the US, try a #1 pencil.  In Europe or Australia, try a 5B (or higher).  "B" grade pencils have a greater graphite content and are softer.  They are smooth to write and draw with.  Read more about pencil grades atJet Pens (no affiliation).
• Try a pen -Pens generally need less pressure than a pencil to produce a mark on the page.  Gel and roller-ball  pens are smoother than ball point pens and require less force for the ink to flow. I personally like writing with the Paper-Mate Ink Joy Gel Pens! For middle-school kids you could try the Pilot Frixion erasable pens (however, I have heard that the ink may disappear from the page if left in the heat).

b) Change the Writing Surface

• Try a "Magnadoodle" or "Etch-a-Sketch".  These are excellent ways to encourage early drawing and writing.  A plastic stylus uses magnetic force to produce a picture or letters.
• Try writing on whiteboards using a dry-eraser marker.  A whiteboard provides a "smooth" writing surface and require less pressure placed than a piece of paper.
• Try a slope/slant board or a vertical surface.  This angle will help to support the hand and wrist position for writing.

Are you concerned about your child applying too MUCH pressure on the page? Is your child breaking pencils or pushing so hard they make holes in the page?  Read "Why Your Child Presses Too Hard When Writing" from Miss Jaime OT!

What are your tried and tested tricks for helping children who have difficulty with pencil pressure? How would you advise "Cody's mum"?

Cindy is a registered Occupational Therapist practising in Sydney Australia.  She has two young children who are a constant source of inspiration and learning.  Cindy loves working creatively to help children to reach their potential, finding opportunities in everyday living and making learning fun. Cindy is the author of the Occupational Therapy blog Your Kids OT.
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The information on this site is general in nature. The activities are safe for most children, however, you should consult an Occupational Therapist or health professional to address specific movement, sensory or other medical conditions.

OFFER ENDS May 21, 2018

* Kranowitz, C. S. (2011). The out-of-sync child: recognizing and coping with sensory processing disorder. Place of publication not identified: Paw Prints.

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