Tearing or ripping materials is a great way to work on pinch and release. Be sure your learner is not using a gross grasp to twist and rip. Have them work on pinching and tearing with use of the tips of the fingers. If this is too difficult, give a little help by making a slight tear to start with, then encourage them to finish. Tearing teaches children how to use two hands together in a coordinated manner. Try these activities:

Pointer Finger Placement- Most often the first finger stays out of the scissors’ loops. It is used to “point the way.” When the pointer finger is positioned around the bottom loop rather than inside the loop, it helps to guide the scissors. This opens up the arches of the hand, especially for your learners with small hands. This may feel awkward at first, but will soon become a habit. Water squirters/Spray Bottles– Practice grasping and releasing the trigger on water squirters using the skill fingers to pull the trigger. Show them how to make the water come out to spray on objects such as dirty toys, chalkboards, pavement, and sidewalks. This helps to strengthen the fingers and hand and teach grading their movement patterns. Be mindful how parents feel about squirters that resemble weapons. Choose animal shaped squirters or spray bottles instead. If you are look for even more cutting ideas, activities, and strategies, explore these other blog posts here at The OT Toolbox: Scissor Skills, Creative & Fun Ways to Help Kids Cut with Scissors, and The Ultimate Guide to Scissors Skills. how to hold scissors with repetitive open-close for cutting However, when teaching scissor grasp, there are important things to keep in mind. How to Teach a Thumbs Up Scissor Grasp Modifications and adaptations sometimes cannot be avoided, often becoming necessary to achieve a consistent and functional grasp.This begins with straight lines, advancing to curved lines, circle shapes, to angled lines and shapes with corners. All of these require good bilateral hand use with the assisting hand to advance and turn the paper.

After the test, each pair of scissors was cleaned in a washing-up bowl and marks awarded to those that were easier to clean than others. pinch and release coins into a bank, change it up and alternate with coins, buttons, and game chips When it comes to grasping the scissors, your learner should use a thumbs-up approach to grasp scissors or the paper being cut. The final skill is the repetitive open and close hand and finger movements, moving forward with the scissors to cut with control and precision on cutting lines.Roller cutters and battery powered scissors are designed primarily for craft materials such as paper or leather, others are suitable for cutting fabric or layers of materials such as those used in quilting. When it comes to scissor grasp, you can use additional supports to ensure proper, or functional, finger placement on the scissors.

This section includes scissors with assistive features. They are suitable for adults, children or both.pinch clothes pins (this blog post shares several pinch exercises and activities using clothes pins) How about a car using “beep, beep” as open and close verbal cues (you can draw headlights on the tips of the scissor blades and play an open-close game). Snip on lines drawn around the edge of a paper plate or on small strips of paper to begin snipping with more control and precision of the scissors Use permanent marker to draw a line on the exterior of the scissor blade that needs to be on top, which is the thumb hole side. They should see this line while cutting. Children's scissors including self-opening, left handed, training and/or scissors with large handles.