by The Shoreline Occupational Therapy Staff last updated February 2004

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Scissor Strategies

• byThe Shoreline Occupational Therapy Stafflast
  updated February 2004

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Contents

• What Problems Do You See?
• What is the Progression for Holding Scissors and
  Cutting?
• Planning a Cutting Task
• What is the Progression When Executing a Cutting
  Task?
• Activities Which Support Hand Development
• Activities Which Support Thumbs In Upward
  Position
• Activities That Support Finger Control For
  Holding Scissors
• Activities Which Support Using Both Hands
• References and Resources

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What Problems Do You See?

• Thumb down and/or fingers splayed
• Scissors close to palm vs. in fingers
• Jagged cutting and poor control of opening and
  closing of scissors
• Paper and scissors are resting on the table
  throughout the cutting task
• Child has difficulty controlling paper and
  scissors at the same time
• Child doesnt know where to start first cut
• Child cuts without ever rotating paper

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Do you see this?
on joint
thumb down
two hands
fingers splayed
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Child will sometimes want more support and use
the table to stabilize the scissors.
Correctly cutting away from midline
Child is given a marker line to know how to get
the scissors to the shape
Cutting without ever letting go of the paper.
Notice that both hands are at the right of
midline.
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Why?

• Scissors are sprung- blades do not meet
• Finger and hand control are immature
  
• Using whole hand to cut versus using thumb and
  first two fingers to control scissors
• Poor Motor Planning
• Lack of specific instruction on how to approach
  and execute cutting task
• Some children with motor planning problems need
  more opportunities with specific instruction

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Progression for developing control of scissors
Part 1

• Child demonstrates interest in scissors
• Child experiments with opening and closing
  scissors, not necessarily cutting paper(hand
  position may vary)
• Child orients scissor blades to paper to begin
  snipping (hands do not rest on table)

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Progression for developing control of scissors
Part 2

• Child gains more finger control with the scissors
  positioned toward fingertips
• Child begins to cut in a forward motion across a
  4-inch strip of paper without adjusting holding
  hand

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Progression for developing control of scissors
Part 3

• Child uses one hand to adjust paper while the
  other hand controls the scissors, cutting across
  an 8-inch wide piece of paper

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Progression for developing control of scissors
Part 4

• Child cuts forward on a line
• Child cuts turning corner(s)
• Cutting past the shape/line to the edge of the
  paper before rotating object (Note We dont
  teach this, they just do it however, we will
  sometimes structure a project this way to teach
  those that cant break down the steps for
  organizing the sequence on their own.)
• Rotate object (paper) to cut around the corner

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Progression for developing control of scissors
Part 5

• Child cuts out straight-line shapes (square,
  triangle)
• Child cuts out curved-line shapes (circle, oval)
• Child cuts out simple shapes (heart, moon)
• Child cuts out complex shapes (star, hand)
• Notice that the two hands must shift between the
  tasks of moving and holding. For example, one
  hand holds while the other opens and closes the
  scissors blades, then the scissors hand must hold
  while the holding hand shifts position on the
  paper.

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Planning a Cutting Task

• Pick up scissors with thumb in small hole and
  fingers in large hole
• Hold onto the piece you want to keep when you cut
• If there is more than one shape on the sheet, cut
  shapes apart from each other
• Cut out each shape
• If the child cant figure out how to get to the
  shape with the scissors, the child could draw a
  line to the shape from the edge of the paper
• Child pre-plans where there are corners/curves

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What is the progression when executing a cutting
task?

• Thumbs point upward for both the paper-holding
  hand and scissor-holding hand
• Looks ahead to plan size of cuts and speed of
  cutting
• Begins cutting task
• Keeps scissors pointed forward and rotates paper
  with helping hand when turning corners or curves
• (Does not turn scissors)
• Takes smaller snips (i.e, when turning corners)
• Right-handed cut in a counter-clockwise
  direction around shape.
• Left-handed cut in a clockwise direction around
  shape.

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Activities Which Support Hand Development

• Lying on your stomach, supported on forearms
  while playing games or doing class work
• Playing on bars (hanging, swinging)
• Playing with clay
• Turning a jump rope for peers
• Chair push-ups when seated at desk
• Working on upright surfaces such as the
  chalkboard or easel

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Activities Which Support Thumbs In Upward Position

• Cards
• Hole punch
• Squirt bottle for watering plants
• Snapping fingers
• Games with small pieces to manipulate (Tricky
  Fingers or tiddly winks)
• Turning a key in a lock or on a wind-up toy

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Activities That Support Finger Control For
Holding Scissors

• Eye droppers
• Tongs
• Clothes pins
• Pennies in bank
• Pegs
• Unifix cubes
• Opening bottles, jars

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Activities Which Support Using Both Hands

• Stringing beads
• Lacing cards
• Cooking activities (cutting,stirring etc.)
• Ripping, tearing, crumpling paper
• All dressing activities. Try a dressing relay race

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References and Resources

• Klein, Marsha, Pre-Scissor Skills, Therapy Skill
  Builders, 1987
• Knight and Gilpin Decker, Hands at Work and Play,
  Therapy Skill Builders, 1994 (activities only)
• Web pages
• http//www.neelb.org.uk/cass/earlyyears/downloads/
  Developing Scissor Skills.pdf