Pen Holds

Do these look uncomfortable?

Often, they are but the children have developed these pen holds themselves and no one has corrected them. It is very difficult to correct a long-established poor pencil grip.

When we start children on formal handwriting too early, we run the risk that their hands will not be developed or strong enough to hold the pencil properly for an extended length of time. To stabilize the pencil and their hand they will over-grip the pencil by placing too many fingers on the pencil or wrapping their thumb around it. While this works, it limits the movement of the pencil and will often result in cramped or fatigued hands and poor letter formation.

There are several ways we can reduce the chance of a child developing a poor pen hold.

Give ample opportunity for the child to develop hand strength through their everyday activities and their play activities. See our blog on Handwriting Starts with Play. Encourage them to do up their own buttons, spread butter and other spreads on their own bread, use a knife and fork or chopsticks to eat their meals. Even things like making their own bed develop hand and body strength.

A post about how helping with household chores helps the brain and academic development is coming soon.

Encourage play with playdough, building blocks, dressing and undressing dolls, colouring in and drawing etc.

Have a variety of drawing and writing materials available. Thicker pencils and crayons can be best for young children to start their colouring and drawing with.

It is natural for young children to hold a crayon or other writing tool with their whole hand so something a bit chunkier makes this more pleasant and easier at first. Gradually as they develop dexterity and strength, they can become more accurate with their strokes and have a better pencil grip. If you have a variety of thicknesses available, they will choose the ones that suit them best.

As they develop their pencil grip you will need to show them the ultimate tripod grip and encourage them to use it.

Watch this video for more information on how to help your child develop a good pencil hold.

Employ a pencil grip device if needed. This might just be a simple padded sleeve that reduces the slipperiness of the pencil or makes a normal writing pencil just that bit thicker.

Learning to do handwriting starts with hand strength, and over time, with guidance and practice, a child will learn to hold a writing tool with ease.  When a child can hold a pencil comfortably and without thinking about it, they can then go on to develop the skill of forming letters and placing them accurately on a page. We should not be expecting a child to write words and sentences until they can form letters accurately and automatically – but that is another blog.