Video: Strong shoulders for speed

﻿Hi, I'm really looking forward to our lesson today. I hope you are, too. Before we get started, this is just a little reminder. We're here to support any approaches you might already be using, and any work you might have already been set. We know that this lesson is going to be going out to so many different children and families. So if you're not sure about anything, or have any questions, then please do contact your usual therapy team. Now that you know what to do, to make your shoulders stronger, for better control, let's look today at how we can make our shoulders stronger, so we can write faster. I want you to try the following hand warm-ups before each handwriting session. This is really important for getting your hands ready for writing. Try and do each activity or each little warm-up, say, 10 times. If you're finding that it's tricky to do one warm-up with both hands together at the same time, then just do one hand at a time, hands open and closed, nice fist, and open, stretch those fingers. Now we're going to interlock our fingers, and squeeze our hands. You can see how white my fingertips are going, because I'm squeezing, and getting all of that feedback into my hands and my fingers. Okay? Squeeze. Now I want you to clasp your fingers, and just pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull. Excellent. Next, let's do some finger taps on the table. If you struggle doing both hands at once, then just do one hand at a time. You can also try finger taps on the tips of your thumbs. Okay, so take each finger, and just gently touch that finger's tip to your thumb. Now do some finger pulls and squeezes. Squeeze your fingers as you pull them up, and away from your body. This is really good activity for getting your fingers ready for writing, and don't forget your thumbs. And if you wanted an extra challenge, you could try some finger separations. Okay, so those were your hand warm-ups. Please remember to do them before each handwriting session. Okay, so we've worked on getting our shoulders strong enough for good control, but why do we need to work on our shoulders for speed? Well, as you get older, you're going to have to write for longer. And that means you need to be able to control your shoulders for lots of little fast movements, to then move your arms and your hands. If you can't move your shoulders fast, very easily, it's going to slow down your work, and not being able to move your shoulders quickly and effectively, really well, could make your work quite messy. There are loads of games and sports that need fast arm movements, too. Pause the video now, to get the items you're going to need today. Some large paper to write on, preferably A3 size, or bigger. If you don't have big paper, you could ask an adult to help you tape lots of A4 sheets together. A tennis ball, and a tennis racket. Restart once you're finished. Our first activity is going to be doing what's called fluency patterns. And as we work across the page, we have to do lots of quick little shoulder movements, and shoulder adjustments. So put the paper in front of you, take a pen or a pencil. You will see in the video that I have used a white board pen, 'cause that's easier to start with, okay? And you can just do a range of fluency patterns, so you can see the ones that I'll do, but you can also see the ones that I'm going to show you on the next slide, right? So try some of these. In this video, you can see how carefully I am working to do some fluency patterns. Notice how I don't lift my pen off, and I really take my time, and don't rush. Okay? So there, I did it quite big, in a number of lines. What you can then do is decrease the size of the lines. So you can see I've gone down a little line space, and I just readjusted my pen, which is absolutely fine. My hand is staying on the board, and I'm not lifting my pen. Okay? You can also see at the bottom, I'm holding the board down with my finger. Now, let's see if we can make it even smaller. Okay, now we've made it just three lines tall. I think we're going a little bit too fast, but I'm doing okay. It's 'cause of all the practise I've had. Do you think I can go even smaller? Let's have a look. Yes, two lines. Oh, slow down, speedy. I'm going too fast. Smaller, do you think? Let's see. Now, who can see one mistake I am making, which was in the basics of our handwriting lesson, right at the start? I am not holding the board with my left hand. Okay, here you can see me doing some other fluency patterns. So those are kind of like hills, up and bounce down. Okay, and notice I'm starting quite big again. Five lines high. Okay, taking my time. And let's see if we can go smaller this time. And now we're going under. They're like little waves, these ones, or the letter U, oh, for umbrella. Notice how I didn't lift my pen. I just simply readjusted the position of my hands, on the pen. Okay, and what do you think the next pattern's going to be? Have a quick guess. Let's see if you're right, oh. Notice how my fingers are holding the board down. Is that the pattern you guessed? Fantastic, those are like mountains, aren't they? Or they could be the letter V for van. Oh, look, I'm going even smaller. Or W for water. Right, what do you think the next pattern's going to be? Have a guess, quickly. Let's see if you're right. Oh. Did you guess that pattern? Now, this is quite a bit more complicated, and sometimes that's how we do a joined up or cursive letter F. Okay, let's see how many you can do before you need to lift your pen up, and see if you can keep them all the same. Right? Now pause the video to have a go. Restart once you're finished. For our next activity, we're going to do some tennis ball bounces. You're simply going to take a tennis ball, and a tennis racket, and find some clear space. If you don't have a tennis racket, you can use a book, or something flat. Okay? Hit the tennis ball up in the air, as many times as you can. And remember, you don't want to hit it too hard, 'cause then it's going to fly away, and you're going to have to start all over. Okay, what you could also do is to try and hit the tennis ball downwards, so that it bounces back up off the floor for you to hit again. So if you remember in our earlier sessions, we did dribbling a ball with your hand. Go back and look at that video. Okay, as you get better at this, you can use your hand instead of a tennis ball, okay? To hit it repeatedly. Right. I'm sorry, guys, that should say that you can use your hand instead of a tennis racket, to hit it repeatedly. Sorry! Okay, pause the video now to do tennis ball bounces. Restart once you're finished. Remember, if you don't have large paper, you can use just normal-sized paper, but place it off to one side, or even the opposite side, so your hand has to stretch further, and start with really simple fluency patterns or shapes, until you get better at them, and then you can do more complicated ones. And if it's quite hard for you to hit a tennis ball, then maybe try hitting a larger ball, that's light, or you can practise with balloons, because they move nice and slowly, so they're easier. Okay. Remember, do the best for you. Practise, practise, practise, and have fun. If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your fluency patterns on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational, and #LearnwithOak. See you next time.

Worksheet: Strong shoulders for speed

Completed: Strong shoulders for speed

In this lesson we learn the importance of strong shoulders for handwriting and practise fluidity patterns for speed.

Strong shoulders for speed

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