Scissor Types

Some minor scissor drama at ESY (summer school) this morning helped me with this blog entry!  We had a few little people whose hands are just not ready for regular scissor use, and had to get them the appropriate scissors so that they could cut out their chickens with their friends!

Some kids are not ready for regular scissors for a variety of reasons-  it may be that developmentally their hands are not ready for the coordinated open/shut motion, or their hand strength may be decreased, or their hand size may just be too small for a regular scissors.  One thing that is often apparent with young children is that they just may not have been exposed to scissor use prior to starting preschool or kindergarten.  Some parents just don't give their kids scissors to "play with" because of safety, or because they don't have time to sit and supervise their play the entire time they are "cutting" (who knows what might get cut up in the process?!).

There are a variety of ways to work on scissor skills without using actual scissors, which then leads to the progression to being able to use a regular scissors.  Practicing picking up things with various types of tongs or chopsticks is one way of introducing the open/shut motion of using a scissors.  There are also types of scissors that can aide with some of the above mentioned problems areas (decreased hand strength, etc).

-a loop scissors eliminates the need to coordinate hand muscles and/or keep little fingers in the holes of the scissors.  It is great for kids with decreased hand strength as well, because they pop open on their own to alleviate the need for the child to continuously re open them.  There are various sizes of loop scissors so even tiny hands can use them.  I personally prefer the blue loop scissors for elementary age kids, and the red mini loop scissors for the tiniest hands.

-a self opening scissors does much the same, but it has finger holes.  There are several varieties of this kind of scissors as well.  Self opening safety scissors (sometimes called "koopy" scissors) have a little "lever" on the handle that can convert them into self-opening scissors, or you can move the lever for it to be a regular scissors.

A regular scissors, 2 self opening (see the "levers") and a loop scissors.
Chicken by Tanner.  :)

I am not a big fan of "training scissors," which allow an adult to cut along with the child (allows the adult to help the child "feel" the motion and coordination of cutting), mostly because I think it gets too cumbersome to help the child, especially if the adult and child have different dominant hands.  However, you might find that this is helpful for your child.  Sometimes it is good to try several things to determine which works best for your child (or you, for teaching them)

When a child progresses to use of a regular scissors, I like the standard Fiscars brand scissors because of the size of the thumb and finger holes.  Some regular scissors have finger and thumb openings that are the same size;  this promotes just using the thumb and the index finger for cutting, which is more difficult.

You might have a hard time finding these specialty scissors and items in your area (like we do here).  One of my favorite supply catalogs/websites that has all of the above mentioned items and more is:
http://www.therapyshoppe.com/

Just click on "scissors and tongs," but don't forget to browse around, because they have a ton of great stuff available!  Later I will post some ideas for working on and improving cutting skills using a scissors.