Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Developing
Handwriting Skills
for Individuals with
Autistic Spectrum
Disorder
Developing Handwriting Skills for Individuals with Autistic
Spectrum Disorder
There are a number of reasons why individuals with Autistic Spectrum Disorder
(ASD) may find handwriting difficult. These might include:
Sensory Difficulties
Poor Motor Skills
Often individuals with ASD may appear able in specific areas of language and
communication but are unable to transfer these skills into the area of handwriting.
Although individuals with ASD may well be good at learning facts in specific
contexts, often they find it difficult to generalize information into broader contexts.
Individuals with ASD might be either hyper or hypo sensitive to light, sound, crowds
and other external stimulation. Many individuals with ASD do have some level of
fine and gross motor difficulty. This often manifests itself in poor handwriting and
difficulty with athletic co-ordination.
Use of Motivators and Rewards to Improve Learning for Individuals with ASD
Postural control – often the inability to hold the body so as to provide the
stability that is required for the upper extremities, i.e. the arms and the hands
to move in a controlled manner
Motor control and motor memory – The means of controlling the arms and
the hands. Our eyes and our muscles guide our movements. Children with
difficulties in this area will rely heavily on their eyes to check the movement,
where children have other sensory impairment and their attentions are
distracted, distorted or overloaded this can cause attention difficulties and
writing becomes a very slow, and in some cases, painful process
Motor Planning – This is the ability of the brain to organise and carry out a
sequence of activities and actions. There are many different elements to
writing. The ability to see individual letters, to form the letters and place them
in sequence within individual words. Often individuals with impairments in this
area may see tangles, disjointed or unconnected images
1. Mickey Mouse Ears – place fists next to ears, squeeze, fingers open close
2. Desk Push Ups – hands flat on desk, thumbs and pointer tips facing each
other (creating a triangle), bend elbows, nose into triangle created between
hands, then up again and repeat
3. Windshield Wipers – arms above head, cross straight arms then put bottom
arm over top hand
4. Scissor Cuts – same as above only arms are pointed straight down with palms
up
5. Shoulder Shrugs
6. Door Knob Turns – arms in front, elbows slightly bent, turn hands towards
thumbs at wrists and return to position
7. Good Morning – hands held opposite elbows, lift in a single motion over the
head, return to waist
8. Finger Opposition – hold fingers next to ears, touch thumb to each finger (i.e.
pointer, middle, ring, pinkie) and back again
9. Butterflies – hold arms straight in front of body, make an X with thumbs, palms
facing out, make small circles to the right and to the left
Other Exercises Include:
Handwriting Hints:
(These need to be tested with each individual, their reaction to sensory stimulus may
mean that they are unwilling to have dirty hands, touch hard or soft materials and so
on)
www.pathfindersfor autism.org
sts@leics.gov.uk