Fixing Pencil Grip in Older Child?

[Paige]

I recently discovered that my son's pencil grip is awful. He is 10 and has been writing like this for who knows how long. His handwriting has always been horrible and a big struggle for us and I am sure that the grip is one of the primary causes of that. When he starts writing, he holds his pencil correctly, but after a few seconds, his thumb slides over his his pointer and middle fingers and no longer touches the pencil. I think I must not have noticed because he starts out holding it correctly. I have been working with him for the past week trying to fix it and we are both frustrated. He insists the way he's doing it is fine. It is not fine. His handwriting is not good and he complains of pain if he writes too long. More than 2-3 sentences has him fatigued and complaining. I'm not sure how to help him other than hovering over him and correcting it every time I see his thumb slide out of place. Any tips? I've thought of getting those pencil grip things but I hated them as a kid and found them to hurt. We have the rubbery ones that look like a coil of stacked circles and they don't help. The ones I was thinking of getting are more wedge or bumpy shaped and are supposed to be ergonomic. Are there any better ones or any other ways to approach this? I feel desperate to get this corrected right away before it is too late. I'm afraid that he's already too old and set in his habits to remediate his grip. I also am not of the club that there is only one acceptable pencil grip. I'm a lefty and have an atypical grip, but his is really bad and not functional. With my atypical grip, my handwriting is still nice and my hands don't hurt.

[Alte Veste Academy]

When he starts writing, he holds his pencil correctly, but after a few seconds, his thumb slides over his his pointer and middle fingers and no longer touches the pencil. I think I must not have noticed because he starts out holding it correctly. I have been working with him for the past week trying to fix it and we are both frustrated. He insists the way he's doing it is fine. It is not fine. His handwriting is not good and he complains of pain if he writes too long. More than 2-3 sentences has him fatigued and complaining. I'm not sure how to help him other than hovering over him and correcting it every time I see his thumb slide out of place. Any tips? I've thought of getting those pencil grip things but I hated them as a kid and found them to hurt. We have the rubbery ones that look like a coil of stacked circles and they don't help. The ones I was thinking of getting are more wedge or bumpy shaped and are supposed to be ergonomic. Are there any better ones or any other ways to approach this? I feel desperate to get this corrected right away before it is too late. I'm afraid that he's already too old and set in his habits to remediate his grip. I also am not of the club that there is only one acceptable pencil grip. I'm a lefty and have an atypical grip, but his is really bad and not functional. With my atypical grip, my handwriting is still nice and my hands don't hurt.

 

I had the other thread about pencil grip, but my dd could write/draw for hours and has good penmanship so I'm happy to let the "problem" go. I would say what you're describing is a real problem. I hope someone can help.

 

I purchased this pencil grip for dd. It will stop your ds's thumb from sliding, as there is a place for it to stay. I do think it will take a lot of time to correct the grip, as old habits die hard. When I was struggling with dd, I would try to hold the pencil like she did and it literally hurt my hand. You just get so used to holding something your own way.

 

I hope someone else can chime in!

[mjbucks1]

I am going to pm you :D