Pinch Grip

Developing and strengthening a pinch grip is needed for handwriting skills. Pinch grip activities can be thought of as pre-writing skills. Many activities, games, and crafts can involve pinching with the thumb and one or two fingers. Participating in these activities can help children develop a functional pinch grip.

• Clothespin activities

  • Using standard clothespins, have kids pinch the clothespins with their thumb and first or first and second finger. Clothespins can be lined up along the edge of a box or can.

  • To incorporate more skills into the activity:

    • Color the clothespins and work on color matching or patterns

    • Write letters on the clothespins and work on arranging letters in name or spelling sight words

    • Write numbers and math symbols on the clothespins and work on basic math skills

  • Clothespins can also be used to manipulate other objects

    • Pick up light weight beanbags with the clothes pins

    • Try to drop the beanbags into containers or try to toss the bags by opening the clothespin at the right time (kind of tricky)

    • In a group of several kids, stand in a circle and pass the beanbag around the circle by grabbing it with the clothespin. You could play a game like ‘hot potato’ this way.

  • Clothespin painting

    • Use clothespins to pinch and grab cotton balls or small sponges to paint with.

• Tweezers or tongs

  • These activities are similar to clothespin activities, but instead of pinching to open, you’re pinching to grasp the object which also requires some skill in pressure modulation

  • Do a craft activity using tongs to decorate with things like cotton balls, pom poms, etc

    • To make it more challenging, use objects with different sizes and shapes. Also try using hard and soft objects that require different amounts of pressure to pick up and hold.

  • Use the tongs to pick up and stack small blocks

  • Use the tongs to sort objects by color or shape

  • Play board games using the tongs to move the pieces

  • Put knobbed puzzles together using tongs to pick up pieces

  • Use tongs to attempt to pick up objects floating in water

  • Play games that naturally involve tongs such as:

    • Bed Bugs

    • Operation

    • Thin Ice

    • Feed-the-animals

    • Wok and Roll

    • Scatterpillar Scramble

• Toothpick Activities

  • Push toothpicks into fruits and vegetables

    • To make it harder use firm vegetables

  • Using chopped up fruits, make fruit kabobs by pinching the toothpick and poking it into the fruit

  • Push toothpicks into different putties

    • Vary the firmness of the putty to make it more or less difficult

• Stringing beads

  • String beads onto string, ribbon, or pipe cleaners

  • To make it more meaningful, let the child pick out a bead craft to make

  • To add more challenge, ask the child to follow a specific pattern

• Tearing paper

  • Tearing paper with two hands requires pinching with both hands. Torn paper can be used in a lot of craft projects and other activities

  • Paper salad

    • Tear green paper into small pieces

    • Add other small objects such as buttons, pom poms, straw pieces (that the child can also cut), etc.

    • Have the child “toss” the salad using both hands

    • “Serve” the salad using tongs

• Putty and Playdough

  • Roll putty into small balls using thumb and fingers

  • Squish putty between thumb and fingers

  • Pull objects such as beads, chips, buttons, etc. out of the putty

• Bubble wrap

  • Pop it using thumb and first finger

  • Use different size bubble wrap to make it more or less challenging

• Button box

  • Cut slits in the top of a cardboard box (like a shoe box)

  • Orient the slits in different directions.

  • Have kids pinch and drop small buttons through the slits

• Ice cube painting

  • Freeze colored ice cubes using food coloring

  • Put a piece of tin foil over the ice cube tray and stick a popsicle stick into each hole

  • Pinch the stick to move the ice around to paint on paper

• Color with broken crayons

  • Broken or small crayons force a pinch grip (because there is really no other way to hold them)

  • Try coloring over different textures to work on pressure modulation at the same time

• Nuts and bolts

  • Using different size nuts and bolts, have the child screw them together.

• Hungry Man

  • Make a slit in a tennis ball using a box cutter

  • One hand squeezes Hungry Man to open the slit (mouth)

  • Other hand "feeds" Hungry Man by placing objects inside (pom poms, cereal, coins, beans, etc.)

  • See this site for more information!