Pencil Grip

[HTRMom]

How do you teach a preschooler the proper grip? Is some type of rubber grippy a good idea? Should I look for a fat, short pencil, or a standard pencil?

 

He likes to hold the pencil between his first and middle fingers, with his first finger hooked around it, and he's not open to suggestions, so I think a grippy that prevents that would be helpful. Any specific recommendations?

 

I know I'm overthinking, but I learned the wrong way when I was little and had hand cramps for many years and relearning as an adult was not easy.

[FO4UR]

Break off chalk and crayons into one inch nubs. The small size forces a tripod grasp.

 

Hide all normal sized writing utensils for a while until he is used to that.

 

When he goes to a normal pencil, I like stetro grips. But those are fussy to use with littles. Nubs are better for littles

[Ellie]

How do you teach a preschooler the proper grip? Is some type of rubber grippy a good idea? Should I look for a fat, short pencil, or a standard pencil?

 

He likes to hold the pencil between his first and middle fingers, with his first finger hooked around it, and he's not open to suggestions, so I think a grippy that prevents that would be helpful. Any specific recommendations?

 

I know I'm overthinking, but I learned the wrong way when I was little and had hand cramps for many years and relearning as an adult was not easy.

 

You aren't overthinking it. In fact, *now* is the time to be thinking about it.

 

Check out "pencil grips" on Amazon.

 

I'd go with a standard pencil, as that is what he will use most all his life.

[HTRMom]

I ended up getting the crossover grips. He hasn't used them enough for me to say whether it's working, but he did use it correctly for his first trial. We've been doing a lot of coloring. It will make my perfectionist heart sad to break his new box of crayons, but I'll go ahead and do that this afternoon.

 

Thank you!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[keirin]

I'd recommend getting golf pencils. :) I bought a box of 48 to use this year with my boy/girl twins in blue and pink. I wish I could take credit for the idea but Handwriting without Tears actually gave me the idea. But I wanted them in two colors so I bought the box I linked above off amazon - we haven't even used half the box of 48 yet.

 

I'd also recommend Write Start Colored Pencils from crayola and triangular crayons from crayola to help promote proper grip.

 

This has worked pretty well for me with just a little bit of reminding my kids how to hold the pencil properly when we sit down to do handwriting. We haven't used any rubber grips or anything, though I'm sure that that would be useful for a child that needs more fine motor toning or has some sort of developmental issue with holding a pencil.