Scissors & Scissor Skills

Scissor skills. One of the most common reasons a child gets referred for occupational therapy by their school teacher. The other is obviously handwriting, but we will talk about that in another post.

For the hypermobile hand, using scissors can be a pain… and painful. Finding the right scissors for your child is really important. Obviously, if you have a left-handed hypermobile child, you are in an even more unique situation (but keep reading!).

One of the most significant issues with using scissors is the strength required to open the scissors back up after each cut. Hypermobile thumbs (and non-hypermobile thumbs, too) really do not like this action, or at least the repetition of this action. For this reason, some clever people (probably OTs) made scissors that have some assistance in this department.

There is a whole range of these scissors, which we often call “spring back scissors”, which are generally the same size and shape as normal children’s scissors, but they have a little spring mechanism which can be flicked on or off when required.

The other option for young children struggling with the open/close movement (and/or are generally a little more uncoordinated) is the Snippy Easy Spring Loop Scissors/ Easy Grip Squeeze Scissors. I really like using these myself! The beauty of these is they can be used by left and right-handed children and adults.

Check out the range of scissors that are available at Pencil Grips Plus.

Now, I know that getting a child who struggles with cutting to actually practice can be quite challenging, so I like to make it as fun as possible.

Think creative.

Think crafty.

You will be amazed at what you can find online if you google images for “scissor skills".

You can go wild with just google & a printer, and maybe some glue.

You might like to be a little radical and ask your child to sit with you while you google & let them choose which ones they would like to use to practice!! 

(Or if you don’t have a child safe internet-filter, maybe you can save a selection on the computer and then let them choose from your selection).

Have fun!