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Children need practice cutting. If your student is struggling to use scissors relative to his/her peers, first consider if the student is able to sit upright, and get his/her fingers correctly in the scissors with their thumb UP.
WHEN A STUDENT DOES NOT HOLD SCISSORS CORRECTLY....:
Make sure the student is sitting upright, with his/her feet on the floor.
Be sure his/her elbow is by her side while cutting, because this will naturally force the thumb upwards. (you can have a student "hold" something between their side and their elbow to help with this)
Ensure they hold the scissors with their thumb UP
(use cues like "thumb goes in the top bunk, fingers go in the bottom bunk", put a sticker on the student's thumb or on the top of the scissors where the thumb goes, or attach a "shark fin" to the top of the scissors as a visual cue)
Practice snipping with straws, skinny strips of paper or foam, old playing cards, packaging materials....anything you can get your hands on! Children will be most motivated when they can see things falling with just one snip!
BASICS OF TEACHING SCISSOR SKILLS...
□ Introduce the child to scissor skills when he/she shows an interest in the materials and the process. Typically girls will be interested in this fine motor skill earlier than boys.
□ A good indication of readiness for scissor skills is the child's use of a spoon or fork. The tool should be held in the fingers, the wrist should be held up and the forearm rotated as the food is lifted to the mouth.
□ The child should show dominant and assistive hand usage in bilateral hand activities. Try practicing with tools other than scissors such as tweezers or tongs to sort cotton balls, blocks, play dough balls, lentils, etc.
□ Make sure the scissors are the proper size for the child's hand. Fingers should be secure in the handle openings. Tiny oval handles are the easiest for young children to manipulate.
□ For young children, try scissors that have a short blade and make sure the scissor blades are sharp. Success can be expected only if the scissors are fully capable of cutting the material at hand. ·
□ Check for proper scissor grasp and positioning. The middle finger and thumb should be placed into the loops and the index finger should be held against the handle shaft to aid in closing the blades and supporting the scissor. The scissor should be held in a thumbs up position.
Practice the opening/closing motion with tongs, tweezers, squirt bottles, etc...
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