Pencil Grip & writing problem

[Anonymous]

What helps with pencil grips? My 4 year old cannot hold a pencil right, cannot write any letters yet, draw circle not round enough, draw a line not straight enough.

She can do beading, can play with tiny tiny toys, so I am not sure if it is considered developmental delay in fine motor skills?

[Anonymous]

Have you tried using small writing utensils? My favorites as both a parent and teacher for young kids are: crayon rocks, mini skinny pipsqueak markers, crayon triangles, golf pencils, mini pens. Also, small broken pieces of crayon, help make sure a child holds the crayon correctly.

[Anonymous]

What does the grip look like? See link for photos and description:

https://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/pencil-grasp-development.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What does the grip look like? See link for photos and description:

https://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/pencil-grasp-development.html

OP here. Thanks for the link. I didn't realize there are multiple developmental stages of the grip. Right now, she is on Palmar Grasp according to the photos.

[Anonymous]

It is normal OP. Don't over think this and you're looking for a problem where there isn't one.

It really isn't until Kindergarten that the teacher will start to hone in on the proper grip.

[Anonymous]

You can have her play with playdoh, play with a sand table, things like that to help strengthen her hands as well. She needs strength + dexterity.

[Anonymous]

It is normal but this is something that kinder and first grade teachers worked on as part of the curricula. It is no longer taught at schools except for in the most basic way. If she is still not holding the grip correctly in kinder then work with her to get it right. It is much easier for kids to learn the correct grip and letter formation strokes in kinder than to learn them incorrectly. We ended up having to work with a handwriting occupational therapy (using handwriting without tears curricula) and ods had to UNLEARN and relearn everything in 3rd grade. It would have been a million times better if this had been caught in kinder or first grade.

Now teachers in the early years of elementary have so much they have to get through that grip and letter formation are only only briefly touched on and not corrected. It is really something that parents need to work on with their kids or have a professional help them with.

Even with computers and doing assignments on the computer, kids still have to write a lot by hand - math work, tests in class, etc, taking notes.

Schools do have OT for handwriting but kids will not qualify for this service at school if they do not have other diagnosed conditions that qualify them for special ed. Just needing OT for handwriting is not something kids can get at school if they do not already have a special ed dx. So we had to pay OOP for the help my ds needed.

GL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is normal but this is something that kinder and first grade teachers worked on as part of the curricula. It is no longer taught at schools except for in the most basic way. If she is still not holding the grip correctly in kinder then work with her to get it right. It is much easier for kids to learn the correct grip and letter formation strokes in kinder than to learn them incorrectly. We ended up having to work with a handwriting occupational therapy (using handwriting without tears curricula) and ods had to UNLEARN and relearn everything in 3rd grade. It would have been a million times better if this had been caught in kinder or first grade.

Now teachers in the early years of elementary have so much they have to get through that grip and letter formation are only only briefly touched on and not corrected. It is really something that parents need to work on with their kids or have a professional help them with.

Even with computers and doing assignments on the computer, kids still have to write a lot by hand - math work, tests in class, etc, taking notes.

Schools do have OT for handwriting but kids will not qualify for this service at school if they do not have other diagnosed conditions that qualify them for special ed. Just needing OT for handwriting is not something kids can get at school if they do not already have a special ed dx. So we had to pay OOP for the help my ds needed.

GL

sorry we had to work with a handwriting occupational THERAPIST

[Anonymous]

My 4yo has a fisted grip. But she can write many letters.

I have an older child diagnosed with dysgraphia and she had a perfect grip around 24 months.