Now that COVID -19 is pushing EI into telehealth, I see exactly what parents have at home when they hunt around for pre-writing tools. These egg-shaped crayons, and crayons where the child pokes a finger inside a cone-shaped crayon, are popping out of bins and drawers like little spring flowers. I (mostly) hate them.
Why?
Because the only kids that benefit from them are infants and kids who have such limited grasp that a cylindrical crayon isn’t a realistic choice. For absolutely everyone else, they teach kids nothing about grasp, and they make it harder to control a stroke. They are fun to bang together and on a table, but they are really difficult to control to make more than a poorly executed mark. This isn’t pre-writing at all.
So why are they in the house? That is simple: marketing.
Parents are eager to give their toddlers and preschoolers an edge, and these are heavily promoted on sites and in stores (remember when we used to go into stores?) They are uniquely shaped and colorful, sold with excellent packaging. A standard box of crayons gets none of this kind of love.
Please, please: don’t believe the hype.
Just like those spoons shaped like bulldozers, these crayons aren’t helping anyone but the people selling them. They are gimmicks, not tools for motor development. If your child is older than 12 months and has enough motor control to hold a spoon in a fisted grasp to eat, they are ready to hold a thick crayon and make a stroke. Experience picking up and using a crayon, and watching an adult demonstrate how to make a stroke on a large sturdy piece of paper is so much more helpful.
