I have a 9 year old son who has Downs Syndrome. He is a special needs child and the love of my life. He brightens my day in so many ways. Well I when I ran across the website Crayon Rocks, I had to check them out!

Crayon Rocks was created by Barbara and she taught children with special needs for 23 years.  She invented Crayon Rocks after being inspired by Jan Olsen, OTR, and the Handwriting Without Tears program.  She learned from her how important it was to develop early a good tripod grip. Handwriting skills depends upon this.

Since a child's first writing tool is usually a crayon, that crayon should be one that encourages him or her to use thumb, first and second fingers in a tripod grip.  This is what makes Crayon Rocks a wonderful tool for fine motor development.

A really good crayon should take very little effort in applying great swaths of color to the paper.  In fact, that crayon should be as much like paint as possible.  Rich color that goes on smoothly and easily helps little fingers to grow strong as they spill their creative ideas onto paper.

She wanted a coloring tool that students with grip strength problems and disorders effecting fine motor control could use AND enjoy.  Children with cerebral palsy, autism, developmental delays and various forms of learning disabilities have tested Crayon Rocks in the classroom.  Parents and teachers of special needs students often tell me how much their children love them. 
This is the bag of Crayon Rocks that was sent to me by Barbara for review! There are 16 rocks in the bag and a wooden Christmas ornament for the kids to color. I love how the colors are made from a renewable resource, soy oil, they are an environmentally better choice over traditional petroleum wax crayons. They are non-toxic and I love that my child can not break these in half like he does the regular stick crayons. They feel great when you hold them and I noticed that my son has an easier time coloring with the Crayon Rocks.

They are very affordable, not much more than a box of regular crayons, and really what does price matter if it builds your child's fine motor skills.

Be sure to check out http://www.crayonrocks.net/ because she not only has the crayons, but she also has some printable teacher resources and information on the charities they support!

**Disclaimer, this product was provided to me for the purpose of this review, the opinions expressed are my own**