Pen

[yoyo123]

The Stabilo Easy Original pen is really helping my son. With normal pencils or pens he has a funny grip and all the guides/grips we've tried make his hand ache, so he doesn't use them. Because of the shape of this pen, he has to use the right grip and he finds it very comfortable. I would highly recommend it. You can buy them cheaper on line. I got the last one on EBay for £4.50 and they didn't charge for postage. Other vendors had a minimum to be spent or £3.50 postage!

Another thumbs up for the Stabilo pens, they come in right and left hand versions

[The Ems]

A bit of an old thread but I thought I'd post this in case it's useful to someone as I don't think I've seen anyone mention Yoropen.

DD1 (year 9) was diagnosed with DCD/Dyspraxia last November. She now uses a laptop in class for most subjects and a Yoropen Superior ball pen in subjects such as maths that don't lend themselves to laptop usage. The Yoropen was recommended by the school SENCO and DD says it's very comfortable to write with (although she wasn't sure at first). The pen has a tripod grip, finger support to reduce strain and a visual space to make it easier to see what you are writing.

That said, it's the laptop that's made the most difference with DD now able to get everything down on paper. She did a touch-typing course at home (also recommended by the SENCO) and she worked hard to get up to a good speed. She prints her work at the end of each lesson and glues it into her book.

[PurpleDuck]

The Ems, I've never seen a Yoropen before, it has a very unusual shape! Was it difficult for your DD to get used to it and did it take long?

[The Ems]

PurpleDuck, I agree the Yoropen is an unusual shape. DD didn't like it at all when she first held it - said she couldn't work out which bits of the grips to put her fingers and thumb on. We asked her to give it a good try before giving up and a couple of days later when I brought it up she said it was "really good".

She thinks it only felt strange briefly and that she was used to it within about a day. She says she particularly likes the viewing space around the pen. Her writing looks very legible with it (although it doesn't help with speed of course).

I presumed that as the SENCO recommended this pen specifically, she had found it helpful with other children with handwriting difficulties.

[PurpleDuck]

Thank you for that, The Ems, much appreciated. It does sound good, I might do a little swap with DS's pen.

[The Ems]

Hope your DS find it helpful if you do buy one PurpleDuck.

Just one thing to mention before you fork out, DD has 2 Yoropens (1 black, 1 blue) and tonight we have discovered that the blue one has broken and can not be put back together (it went wrong at school today but DD just thought a bit had come off in the lid and could be put back). DH has spent 20 minutes trying to fix it but found a crack in a small part and he's not sure if it's a design issue, wear & tear or bad luck). It is only a couple of months old but has had more use than the other as DD prefers the colour.

We're happy to replace it as DD find it comfortable to write with and will always keep a spare as back up in the future but worth a mention as they are about £5.00 each.

[PurpleDuck]

Hope your DS find it helpful if you do buy one PurpleDuck.

Just one thing to mention before you fork out, DD has 2 Yoropens (1 black, 1 blue) and tonight we have discovered that the blue one has broken and can not be put back together (it went wrong at school today but DD just thought a bit had come off in the lid and could be put back). DH has spent 20 minutes trying to fix it but found a crack in a small part and he's not sure if it's a design issue, wear & tear or bad luck). It is only a couple of months old but has had more use than the other as DD prefers the colour.

We're happy to replace it as DD find it comfortable to write with and will always keep a spare as back up in the future but worth a mention as they are about £5.00 each.

That's very helpful, thank you. Maybe I should start off with buying just one. DS's pens don't usually last very long anyway, but if a Yoropen can make a noticeable difference, I suppose I'll have to grind my teeth and replace it when needed...

[um]

It might be worth a trip to a large WH Smith to try out the pens there?

I think Lamy pens are super and have a triangulated grip, but they are not always robust enough for children who press very hard when writing.

Two of my children need help with pen control and the grips which were recommended by the OT are here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pencil-Grip-3-C ... rip+pencil" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

They are for pencils but can be slipped onto most pens, too.

They've been really brilliant for my son but my daughter is rather awkward and tends not to use them as much now she's older

We also discovered with ds that writing on a sloped surface (i.e. an Ikea laptop stand on the table!) helps his handwriting enormously.
If you watch The Hobbit films you will see that Bilbo Baggins has quite a sloped writing desk there too, so it's not a new thing!

[salsa]

Thank you Um. My son hated that tip. He would push it up and not use it. With the pen he has no alternative.
About the slope, they tend to be very expensive, so an IKEA one would be great. Could you please point out which one it is?
Thank you.
http://m.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/functio ... erId=24830" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[PurpleDuck]

Those grips are ideal and much cheaper than an ergonomic design pen. I just wish DS wanted to used them, but he refuses as apparently they make it 'very uncomfortable' to hold his pen. The problem is, I stopped paying attention to how he was holding his pen somewhere in year 5 or 6 (I didn't think I needed to at that stage!) and he slipped into a bad pen-holding habit which he now finds impossible to unlearn. He even manages to hold the banana pen incorrectly but I'm hoping that would be impossible to do with the Yoropen.... If he were a few years younger, I could sit down with him and give him a page of hand writing practice to do until he re-learns the correct pen grip, but how do you do that with a teenager who flatly refuses? My explanations about him putting unnecessary strain on his wrist fall on deaf ears.