How to develop a functional pencil grasp in children ?- Some smart tips

                  

When it comes to handwriting, how a child is holding the pencil (pencil grip) plays a major role to create legible writing with ease.

Being a pediatric occupational therapist, I have come across many children who hold the pencil inappropriately, leading to difficulty in writing with ease.

There are many factors that contribute to the development of a functional or ideal pencil grip. A child needs a lot of gross motor & fine motor play activities in his early years to develop an ideal pencil grip. In this article, I will be sharing some simple activities that can be very effective in developing a child's functional grip.

How does an ideal pencil grip help a child in writing? 

Holding a pencil with an ideal pencil grip allows the child to :

⏩ Move the fingers while writing(not the whole hand, the wrist or the arm),

⏩ Finish a writing or drawing task easily without getting tired.

⏩ Complete a writing or drawing task neatly.

On the other hand, an immature or poor pencil grip tends to block the finger movements. So, the child needs to move from the wrist or from the arm to write which makes the writing task difficult & exhausting for the child.

What does an ideal pencil grip look like?

The correct/ideal pencil grasp is the “dynamic tripod” grasp, where the thumb, index and middle fingers are holding the pencil. Basically the pencil is held by thumb & index finger and it rests on the middle finger.

This is considered to be the most efficient pencil grip as it allows free movements of the fingers and the effective use of the small muscles of the hand while writing.

Stages of development of pencil grip

Moving through the different stages of pencil grasp development is an important part of childhood development.

➤ A child holds a pencil or crayon first using his/her whole hand in a fisted grasp & uses his shoulder movements to move the crayon/pencil.

This starts around 10-12 months of age when a child starts to scribble.

➤ Gradually, as his large and small muscles develop more, he/she holds the pencil with the distal phalanges of thumb, index & middle finger with thumb in a downward position. This is a more mature grasp than the first one, but the child uses his wrist and arm movements more.

Seen in kids around 3-4 years.

➤ When the child develops more control of his hand's small muscles, he can hold the pencil using the dynamic tripod grasp and uses finger movements to write.

Develops around 6 years of age.

It is important to understand that, development of a matured pencil grip is a gradual process & we should not force a child before he/she is ready.

Also, there are many aspects of handwriting other than the pencil grip. While working on the handwriting skills, the development of pre-writing skills, proximal stability & fine-motor coordination is even more important.

Find out - how to develop the pre-writing skills (essential prerequisites before a child starts to write) in 👇

https://abhipsaot.blogspot.com/2021/07/pre-writing-skills.html

What are the factors to be considered about a child's pencil grip development? 

Just like a child first learns to crawl, roll over, sit, then stand & then to walk, the same way, pencil grip also develops gradually when a child is involved in a lot of gross motor and fine motor play activities.

👉These gross motor activities help to strengthen the large muscles for better stability (proximal stability)

Find out some easy activities you can practice at home to develop proximal stability in a child👇

https://abhipsaot.blogspot.com/2021/07/15-easy-activities-to-build-proximal.html

👉When the bigger muscles of the shoulder girdle and trunk are strong and stable, the smaller muscles of the hands can move freely in a controlled way.

👉A lot of fine motor play is essential to develop good control of the hand's small muscles, which is essential to writing and many other daily tasks.

Some easy Activities to promote an ideal pencil grip:-

Here are some very easy & fun activities that are effective in developing a child’s pencil grip. Along with pencil grip, these also help develop a child's attention span, sitting tolerance, creativity, and visual processing skills.☺

1-) Activities with Clothespins
Clothespins are the best tools when it comes to pencil grip!
They are easily available, great for developing a three-finger grasp for pencil holding, and can be used in various ways!

Materials needed:-

▪️ Colorful clothespins

▪️ Chart paper

▪️ Thin cardboard

▪️ Colours (sketch pens /markers)

▪️ Rope

 

👉 Press the clip 

Use clips( clothespins) to press and fix on a thin cardboard .
Then press and remove one by one.

 👉Match the color 

➧ To make it more fun, you can make some circles of different colours on a chart paper or thin cardboard.

Then, ask him to fix the same colour clips over the respective colour circles.

➧ Another variation can be to clip matching pair of socks with the same colour clips.

👉Clip ABC 

Cut 26 pieces of a chart paper and write A-Z on them using sketchpens or marker. 

Tie a rope at shoulder height of your kid. Ask him to find out and clip A-Z in a sequence.

👉Colour sorting 

Use 3–4 different colour clips.

There should be a few clips of each colour.

Ask your kid to sort out different colours and clip each one at the back of the same colour clip.

 2-)Rubberband activity 

This is a great activity that helps to develop pincer grasp in kids. A very simple activity to increase finger strength and can be used in many variations as well as focusing on different areas.

Can be given to toddlers. They love this activity.

👉 Put Rubberbands around a bottle 

Materials needed:-

▪️ Any water bottle or tin can or anything cylindical.

▪️ Lots of colorful rubber bands

Steps:-

1. Use a bottle or anything cylindrical.
2. Help your kid to pick up 1 rubber band,
pull it with his fingers and put it around a bottle...
3. Then remove them one by one.

(Make sure he uses his two fingers {Thumb & index} to pull the rubber bands while putting around the bottle and removing them. )

Or Thumb, index, and middle fingers for younger kids.

➧ You can also ask your child to put the rubberbands with counting.

 3-) Playdough activity 

Using playdough has multiple benefits for kids. You can also use kneaded “atta" as a variation.

Materials needed:-

▪️ Playdough (any colours)

▪️ Any small objects (coins, beads, beans, small pegs )

▪️ If you don’t have beads/small pegs, you can use green peas/raajma beans/chickpeas also.

▪️ Pencil

👉 Find the hidden treasure  

  

Steps:-

1.Make a spherical shape playdough. 

2.Insert some small beads/coins in it.

3.Ask your kid to pinch the playdough with his fingers, find the bead and name it’s colour.

It’s an excellent activity to develop your child’s finger strength and fine motor skills.

➧ If beads are not available, you can put rajma beans/chickpeas inside the playdough & ask your child to remove them one by one.

 

👉 Pinch the playdough with 3 fingers 

 

Steps:-

1. Knead the playdough or atta into a cylindrical shape.   

2.Ask your child to use his three fingers to pinch off small pieces of playdough.

3. Then, roll them into small circles. 

Keep doing till all the playdough is finished.

 

👉 Making different shapes/letters/numbers

Roll the playdough into small cylindrical pieces. Ask your child to make different shapes/letters/numbers with it.

Let your kid use his/her imagination and make anything out of the playdough. 

It’s an excellent fine motor activity that builds their imaginative skills as well.

👉 Write on playdough 

This is a wonderful activity to help develop and strengthen three finger grasp in kids. 

Steps:

1.Roll the playdough into a thick flat piece. 

2. Use a pencil to make lines/write letters on it slowly.

3. Ask your kid to copy you, or hold his hands and help him to make different strokes/ write letters on playdough.

3-) Painting with cotton swabs 

This is another fun activity that is useful for developing a three-finger grasp, pencil control & multiple other areas.

Steps:-

1. Make any simple drawing with dotted outlines.

2. Use some water colour. Hold a small cotton ball using three fingers(thumb,index & middle) and dip in a color.

3. Dab on the dots to colour the picture.

4-) Painting with an eyedropper 

Steps:-

1. Make any simple drawing with dotted outlines.

2. Use some watercolor. 

3. Take an eyedropper, press using three fingers(thumb,index & middle)  and draw small amount of colour.

4. Use it to put on the dotted outlines and paint the picture.

5-)Tear & Paste 

This activity is enjoyed by all kids & it is very beneficial to develop pre-writing skills and ideal pencil grip. This activity helps to:

➧Strengthen small muscles of the hand

➧Enhances fine motor control

   Some more useful tips   

🔹 Holding a small bead with the ring & little fingers to block them while writing for an efficient pencil grip.

🔹 Use of a pencil holder can assist your child if he/she has a weak grasp.

🔹 Using the large pear-shaped crayons when your child is beginning to write/colour.

All the above activities can be used by children with Autism, ASD, Down syndrome, Learning disabilities, Cerebral Palsy, Sensory processing disorders(SPD), or, for any child who is beginning to write or has not developed an age-appropriate functional pencil grip.

Although a functional pencil grip is necessary for legible & comfortable writing, it's even more important to have control of the small muscles of the hand & fingers for the fine control of the pencil required while writing. 

Find some more easy fine motor play activities that are fun & enormously helpful to develop good control of the pencil and other small objects in hand. 👇

https://abhipsaot.blogspot.com/2021/07/you-must-have-heard-lot-about-fine.html

Thus, if you can practice these activities, they will help your child build a strong foundation making their writing work much easier & they will not miss out on learning opportunities due to difficulty in writing.

Try out!

Enjoy reading!

Happy parenting to all my readers.😄

About the writer :-

The writer’s name is Abhipsa Parida. She is an occupational therapist specialised in pediatrics and has been handling kids with special needs since 5 years. She is quite experienced and skillful in observation, assessment and planning intervention for kids with special needs. She uses evidence based practice and is very creative and updated in her approach while handling kids with special needs. She has her own clinic in Bhubaneswar and has handled many kids of different age groups with varying needs.

If you have any queries, you can mail them at abhipsaot21@gmail.