An Experience: Handwriting

Recently a young boy came to me. He was assigned to write some words, but he had continued to refuse to do so. He wouldn't consider picking up the pencil to do it. After awhile he agreed to write a portion of the assignment. As he wrote, I noticed that he was holding his pencil in a tight grip and the task seemed labored and slow. After he had written a little, I asked him to put the pencil down and do some other things with me. I had him do "Double Doodles" in the air. First we did them together and then he did them by himself. Then he did "Lazy 8" with different colors of crayons. Following that I asked him to write some more. His first words were "This is easy". He was able to stay on task to complete his assignment.