Auto Mechanics

by kato eaton
(dumont colorado)

My 4 yr old has fine motor skill problems. He will not color,scribble, anything the school wants him to do. I have a friend who is a mechanic. One day he wanted to take my son to his house to hang out. I let my son go and they tore apart an old truck. to my amazement my four yr. old helped pull out an alternator and a radiator.




My friend the mechanic notified me that he did a great job loosing the bolts and following directions. So we now try to take apart any junk we can find. I have to loosen the screws or bolts but he does the rest. He thinks he is cool and helping to fix things. Just a little creative way to help him that came to us when we where not looking.



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by: Nancy Peske

How terrific that your friend introduced him to mechanics and your son found this wonderful outlet! Lots of kids with SPD have hidden talents like this and it's just fantastic when they can find something they're actually really great at!
You might want to encourage him to play with building toys like Legos and such. He may do better following the "exploded view" directions than you think, or he may actually be able to create structures on his own that are amazing. It's all great fine motor work.

When my son had to work on handwriting for years, what he was most open to was doing mazes--which he was great at--and writing on a chalkboard we put up on his wall, using regular chalk and thick sidewalk chalk. His OT said this would really help build hand muscles. We would write him little notes or draw pictures and he'd respond with writing or pictures--it was fun. He also liked connect-the-the dots. Sometimes, it's the pressure of doing writing itself that feeds their anxiety. Have him practice writing in shaving cream on a table, or with a stick in wet sand--give him fun, tactile options for practicing handwriting. Lots of schools work with Handwriting Without Tears which encourages different ways of practicing fine motor skills for handwriting.

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