O - Dotting

O Dotting is a great starting activity, which is easy for all ages. The most difficult part of this might be finding actual newsprint to use for the activity. We like newsprint for quite a few reasons. The paper is relatively “soft” and if you push too hard with the pencil, you will tear the paper. The paper has a texture to it and when combined with a basic number 2 pencil, gives feedback in the writing hand that movement is occurring, which you might not get with a more slippery writing surface.

Here is some text before any “dotting” had been done.

Here is the same text with the first four lines dotted. This was made with Photoshop and the color chosen to help see the “dots”. When done with a number 2 pencil, the letters with the dots will look more or less solid.

Increasing the load can be done many ways but one way would be to find smaller fonts. The classified ads were usually done in smaller fonts. Of course, you can use a word processor and make your own text at varying size fonts and spacing. Remember that O is a shape so it can still be O Dotting with pictures surrounding the O’s rather than the alphabet.

Even more challenging: Use a red pencil or red print with red/green glasses.

Decreasing the load can be done by making the font bigger, increasing the spacing, or even using larger shapes.

Dot Markers, when used on the right kind of surface can be wiped clean and the pictures can be used again and again. This is great for home practice.

Patch an eye—we must use a passive patch because one hand is holding the pencil and the other is steadying and on the paper.
Holding a pencil in the right hand, color in as many “O’s” as possible in a minute.
Leaving the patch in place, put the pencil in the other hand—repeat.
Leaving the pencil in place, move the patch to the other eye—repeat.
Switch the pencil back to the original hand and repeat the last combination of hand and eye for the last of the four minutes.
We get all four combinations—OD-RH, OD-LH, OS-LH, OS-RH.
The idea is to provide practice and direct feedback about the person’s ability to calculate space and direct action using each eye and each hand.