Drawing With Both Hands
AJ cracked a bone in her upper wrist a little over a week ago, falling off a log at a friend's house. Not a bad break, but enough of a tiny buckle in the bone that the doctor wanted her to wear a splint for the next 4 weeks to protect it while it was healing.
AJ's wrist is feeling OK, but she has been refusing to use her right arm or hand at all. Finally, last night after she had a complete meltdown because I asked her to leave the splint off for a little while after her bath to allow the skin to dry completely, I called in the big guns.
We called my friend the pediatrician, Dr. A. She talked to AJ on the phone and convinced her that she could leave the splint off for a little while to allow the skin to breathe while reading quietly in her bed. And, Dr. A encourage AJ to try to start using her arm and exercising her fingers even though she had a splint on the arm.
Today, we took some time to do some getting-ready-to-start school activities in preparation for next week. We talked about what subjects we would be covering and why they needed to know each thing, what we would be studying in U.S. History, and what kinds of activities we would be doing. Then we did some art practice--copy work from Drawing with Children.
AJ agreed to try the activity with her left hand, and did very well with it. That in itself was exciting because she's been so frustrated with the results of drawing or coloring with her non-dominant hand that most of the time she hasn't been wanting to try it.
Then M&M and I said that we would try it with our left hands if AJ would try doing it with her right hand. We had lots of laughs and groans as we all tried the copy work with our more difficult hand, but all of us finished the worksheet and had fun comparing our results. We wrote our names with both hands and compared those, too.
AJ did great, and I think gained a lot of confidence seeing that she could still use her right hand even with the splint on--and that the results were as good as or better than her left hand, but really quite legible with either hand.
I'm hoping that a few more activities like this over the next few days will give her the confidence she needs for schoolwork next week. I'll let her dictate some of the work she would normally have to write, but I do want her to continue using and exercising her arm. I'm glad today's experiment went so well.
AJ's wrist is feeling OK, but she has been refusing to use her right arm or hand at all. Finally, last night after she had a complete meltdown because I asked her to leave the splint off for a little while after her bath to allow the skin to dry completely, I called in the big guns.
We called my friend the pediatrician, Dr. A. She talked to AJ on the phone and convinced her that she could leave the splint off for a little while to allow the skin to breathe while reading quietly in her bed. And, Dr. A encourage AJ to try to start using her arm and exercising her fingers even though she had a splint on the arm.
Today, we took some time to do some getting-ready-to-start school activities in preparation for next week. We talked about what subjects we would be covering and why they needed to know each thing, what we would be studying in U.S. History, and what kinds of activities we would be doing. Then we did some art practice--copy work from Drawing with Children.
AJ agreed to try the activity with her left hand, and did very well with it. That in itself was exciting because she's been so frustrated with the results of drawing or coloring with her non-dominant hand that most of the time she hasn't been wanting to try it.
Then M&M and I said that we would try it with our left hands if AJ would try doing it with her right hand. We had lots of laughs and groans as we all tried the copy work with our more difficult hand, but all of us finished the worksheet and had fun comparing our results. We wrote our names with both hands and compared those, too.
AJ did great, and I think gained a lot of confidence seeing that she could still use her right hand even with the splint on--and that the results were as good as or better than her left hand, but really quite legible with either hand.
I'm hoping that a few more activities like this over the next few days will give her the confidence she needs for schoolwork next week. I'll let her dictate some of the work she would normally have to write, but I do want her to continue using and exercising her arm. I'm glad today's experiment went so well.
Labels: just life, kid stuff, learning
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Posted by purple_kangaroo at 11:56 AM[Permanent link]
2 Comments:
Ouch! I hope she feels better soon. Tell her (if you haven't already) that very few people can write legibly with both hands and that's definitely a skill worth cultivating.
How's her arm healing now? Must be almost time to take off the splint. I remember SisJ having to write with her left hand when she broke her arm.
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