by Anne Zachry, OTR/L

Have you ever seen a Squiggle, Wiggle Writer? It is a great little vibrating pen that can be used in therapy, and kids absolutely love it! It is triangular in shape and slightly heavy, so it’s great for helping a child learn to use more pressure when writing, especially when the vibration component is turned on. In order to maintain control of the pen, a child has to press down fairly hard. The vibration also increases kinesthetic awareness of the hand.

Watch Video of Squiggle Wiggle Writer HERE
As you can see in the video, this child is not resting her forearm on the table. She’s using whole arm movement to control the pen. After I prompt her, (on the second line) she rests her forearm on the table, which encourages her to use more wrist movement and finger dexterity for writing.
I also love these pens because they come with several small color cartridges. The cartridges can be used without the pen and their small size promotes a nice pencil grasp. As you can see in the video below, the student is struggling to maintain an appropriate grasp on the cartridge while forming a star. She keeps a nice open webspace the entire time, but she occasionally lifts her forearm off of the table and reverts to wrapping her thumb around her index and middle fingers, but with prompts and a little assistance, she is able to complete the task successfully. This is a great exercise for the intrinsic muscles of her hand (which are quite weak). My next post will include a video of me demonstrating how I want her to hold and writing using the wiggle pen, using primarily finger flexion and extention with some wrist movement, but limited whole arm movement.

Squiggle, Wiggle Writer’s  are available on Amazon and on most therapy websites.
 
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