How Do You Help Your DC Hold Their Pencil/Crayon Correctly?

[kellycbr]

DD 4 has great fine motor skills, and loves to draw, but she holds her pencil or crayon with her thumb and next two fingures wrapped around it on the outside, and the pinky and ring finger on the inside. I understand its harder to correct the longer I wait, but she insists "They're my fingures, and I can hold them the way I want." Don't you just love 4 year olds!:) I've noticed if she has a 1-2" crayon, she holds it correctly. However, having and older DS, and lots of full length writing instruments, I'm not going to be able to keep them out of her hands. Any thoughts? :bigear: Thank you in advance for taking the time to answer!

[Dawn E]

Maybe you could model picking the pencil up with the thumb and pointer finger only, then slide it to rest on your hand and point out that the other fingers just gently support the pencil. My daughter struggled (still struggles at times) with gripping the pencil incorrectly. She loved watching me slowly demonstrate this and then practicing it herself.

 

Hope this makes sense and is helpful.

 

Dawn

[3lilreds in NC]

We used pencil grips for a while. Ours looked like the first ones on this page, but I've gotten them at Learning Express and a local school supply store. My girls decided they didn't like the grips, so as long as they hold their pencils properly, they don't have to use them.

 

I will tell you, though, that my dd7 still holds her pencil like that when it's not "school." I remind her every time I see her doing it, but I am not sure I will ever really convince her to do it properly. I don't know if it's better to start early with the pencil grips, or just accept that she's going to hold her pencil like that.

[klmama]

Do you have a dartboard? Teach your little one to play darts, as much as possible at that age (we put the dartboard on the sofa). Show her how to hold a dart correctly. Praise her like crazy for getting it right. Then, when she goes to pick up a pencil or crayon, tell her to hold it like a dart. It does the trick.

[gardening momma]

I bought lots of different kinds of pencil grips. I would have bought an assortment of them online (that's where I saw them first), but we have a teacher store 20-30 min. away, and I found them there. They have helped a lot. I still had to show her where to put her fingers on the grips, but she holds her pencils/crayons in a much better grip now, even without the grips.

[newbie]

I tried for yrs. to get mine to hold right way, and it was a no go. She writes fine now at 12 and she is a wonderful artist.

[MommyInTraining]

:001_smile:I wanted to correct my 9yodd grip. She was using her middle finger to grip with. I wasn't given much encouragement but proceeded to try and change it in the following way:

 

She agreed to try for 1 month to use "the claw" www.writingclaw.com. At the end of the month she was to receive $5 and a new book. She was to use it for all writing/drawing activities.

 

After 1 month of having developed the proper grip using "the claw", she had to go another month with using the proper grip without "the claw". At the end of that month she was to receive the same reward. She agreed and I am happy to say that it succeeded in changing her grip!!!! :lol:

 

Now, with my 7yods I just have him use a pencil grip I bought from the school supply store and I don't have him use it all the time, but when he doesn't use it, he still does not have a proper grip. He is still not writing much, so I am not going to focus much on it with him until he is a little older and then probably go through the same type of procedure if he needs it.

 

The claw is great! www.writingclaw.com

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Terri in WA