Here are 5 ways to help children learn how to use scissors and to make cutting a little bit easier.
1. Use thicker paper when cutting. Recycled mail, greeting cards or playing cards are fun and easier to cut up than regular paper. Make it functional and the children can cut up junk mail to recycle it. Cut up greeting cards to make a simple puzzle.
2. Use smaller paper. Start out with paper that is not very wide. Index cards are nice because it is small and thick paper. Here are some printable cutting strips that children can start with that only require a scissor cut for a few inches - http://yourtherapysource.com/freecuttingstrips.html
3. Draw a line from the edge of the paper to the object being cut out. If a child needs to cut something out in the middle of a paper draw a straight line from the edge of the paper to the object for the child to cut along.
4. Make the line that needs to be cut stand out more. You can thicken the line with a black marker, highlight the line or put stickers along the line to provide extra visual cues of where to cut.
5. Different scissors. Standard scissors may not be the best choice for every child. There are sooooo many different types of scissors available and different ways to cut if a child can not use scissors. Here is a nice slideshow with pictures of various scissors (PS this is a great blog to follow) - http://teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com/2009/12/special-needs-scissors.html
Do you have any tips to add? Need some printables to get started? Check out Cutting Cards and download some free sample pages.
By: Your Therapy Source
Summary: This download includes over 200 3"x5" cards to print and cut out to practice scissor skills. The collection is in color and black and white. The small cards allow success for children who are learning to cut. FIND OUT MORE at http://www.yourtherapysource.com/cuttingcards.html
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