Why Wrist Extension Is Important

• Wrist position affects finger mobility
• How a hooked wrist affects writing
• Lifting up the wrist while writing
• Help your child develop a more functional wrist position
• Related Pages
  

Hold a pencil in this position with your wrist bent forwards (flexed) and try moving your fingers. They probably feel stiff with not much movement happening.

Now hold a pencil in this position with your wrist extended (hand comes up) – now try moving your fingers. You should be able to get more movement of the pencil with greater control over your fingers.

Many children hook their wrists, or have flat wrists when they write, as you can see from the picture alongside.

Some may do this because their fine motor skills are poor or because they have a degree of low muscle tone.

Poor shoulder girdle stability may also cause a child to lean his or her whole arms on the table, thereby needing to hook the wrist to get the pencil into the correct position.

Many children with a degree of low muscle tone, or with poor fine motor skills, may lack good wrist stability.

They often lift their wrist up from the table while writing, and may also write with movement from their wrists instead of their fingers.

This is very tiring, and usually leads to messy work.

There are some simple wrist stretching exercises and ways of adapting regular activities to help your child achieve a more functional wrist position.

Check out my page of wrist exercises for kids for lots of photographed ideas and tips!

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