FM.E.93 SNIPS WITH SCISSORS

Cutting with scissors is a popular activity in most preschools, and provides hours of fun at home too. It provides excellent practice in two-handed eye-hand co-ordination.

The ability to snip with scissors normally appears at about the 2^1/2-year-old level. Before you consider teaching this skill, check that your child’s hands are large enough and strong enough to handle kindergarten scissors. In our work with children with Down’s Syndrome we have found that many make better progress with cutting when its introduction is delayed, even though they have done well with other skills at this level. If you cannot easily guide your child’s hands to open and close the scissors, you may prefer to go on with other skills in this sequence and return to cutting later.

Materials are extremely important in teaching cutting. Look for scissors with a free action and a comfortable finger grip. Wide plastic handles are usually more comfortable than narrow metal ones. The points must, of course, be blunt but the cutting edge should be fairly sharp. There is nothing more frustrating for child or teacher than scissors which do not work

Scissors with a spring action, which do not need to be manually opened, can be a solution for children who are prevented by physical handicap from using ordinary scissors. But be cautious about introducing these scissors as cutting, though difficult, does provide excellent exercise for the hand.

If your child’s hands are not strong enough to operate the scissors, special hand exercises are called for. Squeezing a small rubber ball is a good starting point, and your physiotherapist will advise you further.

Paper used in early cutting work should be stiff enough to stay steady when held with one hand, but not so stiff as to resist cutting,

How to Assess

Materials: A pair of kindergarten scissors, as described above. A 10 cm square of paper.

Method: Say ‘Look, I can cut the paper’. Snip the edge of the paper with the scissors. Give the scissors to the child’s preferred hand, and the paper to his other hand. Say ‘You cut the paper’. Let your child have 5 tries – you may demonstrate each time.

Score plus if your child makes a snip of 1 cm or more in at least 3 out of 5 tries.

How to Teach

This skill can be taught in 3 steps. Assess your child first on each step, to see where teaching should begin.

1. Opens and closes the scissors. To achieve this step, the child must be able to open and close the scissors, but need not position the scissors or hold the paper himself. Teach your child by helping him physically, while saying ‘Open . . . shut’. Physical help involves showing your child where to position his fingers and assisting the action. Your hands should touch your child’s hands, so that it is his hands and not yours which cause the scissors to open. If you open the scissors for him by pulling the handles apart, the scissors will pull your child’s fingers apart, giving him a false impression of what he is aiming for. Cutting is one of the hardest actions to physically assist. You will find it easier if you stand behind your child, so that your hand and your child’s hand are in the same position. Although paper is not essential to this step, it does add purpose to the activity. You hold the paper and slip it between the blades of the scissors once your child has opened them. Your child then has the satisfaction of seeing the cut paper. Continue working on this step until your child can open and close the scissors. You can continue to teach the correct finger positions as you teach the next step.
2. Snips paper (paper held by the teacher). Now your child must open the scissors, move them into the correct position for cutting and snip the paper. Guide your child’s hand towards the paper by the lightest possible touch to the wrist. Gradually reduce your guidance as your child masters the skill,
3. Snips with scissors, holding the paper. Your child can now learn to snip paper as described in the notes on assessment above. Continue to give light physical assistance for as long as it is needed, making sure that your hands touch your child’s hands and not the scissors or the paper, and gradually reducing your help.

Playtime and Round-the-house Activities

Cutting is not, of course, a suitable activity for independent play with young children, but it will help your child’s sense of what cutting is for it you link it to craft-work such as collage pasting.

For variety, use wallpaper samples, magazine covers (the inside pages may be a bit floppy at this early stage), old greeting cards, drinking straws (fun to snip into pieces) and pieces of greenery from the garden.

Remembering and Extending

This skill is directly extended in FM.E.128 (cuts across a 2 cm strip).