Having a mature pencil grasp can make school (writing!) so much easier and more enjoyable for our kiddos! As a school-based OT, I get questions about handwriting and pencil grasp the most often! Check out my blog on The Top 5 Questions Special Ed Teachers Ask the OT to learn more about how I address questions regarding a variety of common OT topics! This blog is going to focus on pencil grasp! Below are my top three tips on how to address immature pencil grasp within your classroom!
1) Improve Positioning
How we position ourselves can either make or break our success with writing. It may seem like positioning of the fingers on the pencil is the most important component of proper positioning for writing. Think again! We need to start with positioning all the way down to our feet if we want to adequately support proper pencil grasp!
- 90-90-90 Sitting Position
- This is the “OT lingo” term for feet, knees and hips all being positioned at 90 degree angles when sitting in a chair. If a child’s feet are swinging/dangling, it adds a big core strength demand to sit up. This takes away from the student’s ability to use their fine motor control to write. If the student is slouched or too far from the tabletop, they will have a hard time seeing/reaching what they are writing. Stabilizing the more central or core muscles groups will allow for better fine motor movement.
- Check out Taylor’s blog on proper positioning during virtual learning for more in depth information about how students should be seated!
- Stabilization of the Forearm
- We don’t want a floating forearm when writing. In this position, all the movement is coming from the shoulder or the elbow, rather than the intrinsic muscles of the hand. The student cannot make the fine/intricate movements that they need to make to write with appropriate control and size without stabilizing their forearm and wrist. Consider using a slant board [or a 3 ringed binder turned on the side] like the one picture above to help with this! We also love to practice writing on a vertical surface [like the chalk board] to promote wrist extension!
- Check out my pre-writing blog series for more information on core strength and shoulder stability that are important prerequisites for appropriate pencil grasp!
2) Ensure Hand Separation
Once the body and arm are appropriately positioned, we can start to think more about how the hand is placed on the pencil! Hand separation is simply the skill a child needs to separate the strength and precision sides of their hand. Counterintuitively, the “pinky side” of your hand is where you get most of your strength. The middle, ring and pinky fingers are the power side of the hand. The index finger and thumb are where most of your dexterous movements come from! Separating the two sides of the hand allows the precision side of the hand to hold the writing utensil. This helps the student to have control when forming letters or coloring. Here are some quick ways to promote hand separation:
- Use a handi-writer pencil grip [affiliate link] like the one pictured above
- Have the student “hide” something small [pom pom, mini eraser, etc.] in the pinky side of their hand so only their thumb, index and middle fingers are available to hold the pencil.
- Consider using small writing utensils that cannot be held with a fisted/all-fingers grasp. I like to use golf pencils or flip crayons [affiliate link]. You can also easily break crayons to achieve the same size writing utensil!
- Activities like Q-tip Painting or push pin activities are great ways to strengthen that pincer grasp!
3) Target Hand Strength & Dexterity
Of course, we can’t forget that some students may be lacking the underlying skills required to have a mature pencil grasp at this time. If we are positioning them for success from their toes to their fingers, and they still cannot maintain a mature pencil grasp, maybe we need to strengthen some skills. Fine motor strength and endurance are required for writing. So are in hand manipulation and dexterity skills! I am a firm believer that all students [especially in younger grade levels] can benefit from daily fine motor practice. I know there are TONS of academic concepts and standards that teachers are trying to squeeze into a short school day. However, I challenge all teachers [with the support of your OTs!] to get creative in ways that you can incorporate fine motor strength and dexterity skills into academic tasks. See some of my favorite SSE resources that work on fine motor skills below:
- I love the Fine Motor Centers!
- Check out my blog on how to implement these centers [the seasonal ones!]
- Let’s not forget that scissor skills are another great fine motor activity! The Cut & Paste Bundle is a great resource!
- Read my blog on How to Improve Fine Motor Skills with Cut + Paste Activities for more info!
- The Clip Cards resources are great ways to address academics AND fine motor skills in a low-prep activity!
- Visual crafts [search the shop by month!] and visual recipes are also ways in which you can “sneakily” add in some fine motor practice!
- Learn more about what skills can be addressed in the following blogs:
I hope you feel better equipped to support students in your classroom [or at home!] with pencil grasp! Share in the comments or on Facebook other pencil grasp tips and tricks you have learned from your OTs!
