The Pencil Grip Original Universal Ergonomic Writing Aid for Righties and Lefties, 6 Count, Assorted Colors (TPG-11106)

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Encourage your child to do lots of fun and interesting drawing and writing activities using different types of pens, coloured pencils, crayons and chalks so they are motivated to practice. Please also see out pencil skills advice sheet for further activity ideas and out fine motor skill advice sheet. In occupational therapy sessions, the OT practitioner is striving to achieve the most effective and functional pencil grasp for each individual. A therapist may have 40, 50, or even 70 students on their school-based OT caseload…and each student will be completely different when it comes to grasp patterns, pencil pressure, positioning of the fingers, preferences, letter formation strokes, executive functioning skills, self-regulation, visual motor skills, sensory preferences, and handwriting considerations. All of these areas play into handwriting.

Before we get into the various types of pencil grips you may see an occupational therapy practitioner recommend, it’s important to cover functional pencil grip. One final note on the use of pencil grips, they WILL be uncomfortable to use at first. Learners are having to utilize the correct finger and hand muscles. Some children develop their fine motor skills at different stages. So, we have developed two posters, one with ages and one without. This can be especially useful when you are working with children with SEN.To meet the needs of the individual student, a pencil grip may be supplied as a tool to support those individual needs.

The type of pencil grip can also serve to support the child as they focus on the writing process, therefore not exhausting their thought and energy, trying to remember to grasp the pencil properly for the best function. Here is an OT tip just for you! Create a pencil grip kit as pictured below. This will serve you coordinate an approach to determining the best pencil grip for any learner. You will have children that the typical grip will not work for, and you’ll need that one rarely used grip just for them! Have it on hand! Finally, we’ll cover a variety of related resources and activities to support the development of pencil grip use.Most children naturally develop a pencil grasp that is comfortable for them and a variety of different grasps can be seen in any classroom. A pencil grasp only becomes a problem if the child complains of fatigue, pain in their hand, or has difficulty writing neatly and at a reasonable speed (as compared to their peers). Pencil grips are designed to support the most functional and efficient pencil grasp a child can achieve.

Sometimes the easiest way to ensure a better grip on a pencil is by getting a smaller pencil into those hands. Golf pencils are some of the best tools for smaller hands, as they are the right size. The use of larger pencils and crayons leads to compensatory grasping patterns, as they are too long and too heavy for little hands to grasp and hold for long periods of time. A typical sized pencil in the hands of a child, is the equivalent of an adult trying to use a 12 inch pencil! Think of pencil grips as a supplemental tool to aid a child as they continue to work on building the hand and finger skills needed to achieve an independent and efficient grasp.

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Rest assured, the use of the right pencil grip, when coupled with the activities you are using to get to the root of the problem, will help.