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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

At what age should a child be able to hold a pencil/crayon properly??

10 replies

fuzzywuzzy · 03/04/2006 11:38

How do you teach a child to hold a pencil properly in order to write??
Dd1 goes to nursery and she gets homework, nothing major, stuff like 'now draw a circle', etc. But my poor baby cannot hold a pen properly in her hand, she has clearly been deprived by me, as the one time she got hold of a pen she (prompted by evil bitch from hell sil) wrote all over her self......
Anyways as she's now in school and will be starting formal education in another year I have a slight feeling she should at least understand how to hold a writing utensil, so how does one go about teaching a 3 year old how to do this??? I am absolutely convinced every other child is producing fabulous works in caligraphy, and it doesn't bother me, I just need to teach my dd how to hold a pen properly..for now.

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Littlefish · 03/04/2006 11:43

I used to be a reception teacher and we worked on pencil grip all the way through the year (gently!) and also, for some children, through year one and two as well.

Please don't worry about this for now! Fat crayons are good for small hands, but if you don't want her getting pen etc. anywhere, one of those magnetic drawing games is great.

Also, I'm shocked at a nursery giving any kind of written homework, however minor.

coppertop · 03/04/2006 11:44

Ds1 still couldn't hold a pencil when he started school. His teacher said he wasn't the only one either.

The school used triangle-shaped pencils or ordinary pencils with plastic triangular grips added to them to help the children. I'm sure you can get them from most stationery shops.

Original poster

fuzzywuzzy · 03/04/2006 11:45

Hmm I was thinking it a bit strange too, I panicked when she got her first homework, 'write your name' Just seemed so difficult, and then my boss (an ex-teacher) told me children couldn't be expected to write until they could recognise letters first....which dd cannot.

OP posts:

stoppinattwo · 03/04/2006 11:49

Show her, you hold the pencil first and then let her do the same. even put her fingers in the right place. It will take ages cos they wont understand, all they see is i want to make a mark on the paper and i dont care how i do it!!. My 7 yr old I let him do what he wanted, and its only now hes doin joined up writing now in school it has become a bit of a problem. The way they hold the pencil is important cos its all about control, my 4yr old DD is far better than he was and can hold a pen properly but it was only because i showed her and kept showing her the right way. just very gently not makin a bit thing out of it and not being on her case about it all the time.

The other thing that i found in nursery was that they were telling me how well DS was doing with his letters and how he could write all of his letters, (he was very quick for his age ) but he wasnt being shown how to form them properly so when he got to school they had to break all the bed habits he had form nusery and show him how to form his letters correctly.

stoppinattwo · 03/04/2006 11:52

God my spellin is sooooooooooo bad almost as bad as my handwriting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

corblimeymadam · 03/04/2006 12:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

amber5 · 03/04/2006 12:14

my ds is 3 yo and (private) nursery have 'optional homework'. I intend to take this when he starts key stage foundation after Easter, as he goes 2 full days and a half, instead of 5 half days and it means i can give him something 'educational' to do on the other 2 weekdays that i know will complement what he's been doing at nursery. he holds his pencil in a fist and i haven't put any pressure on him to do anything other.

SuperTramp · 03/04/2006 12:21

DS (4.2) can't hold a pencil properly yet either. He does loads of scribbling at home but loses interest if I show him how to do it properly.

that nursery are giving homework. Haven't they got enough years of that ahead of them?

Clary · 03/04/2006 16:38

at nursery setting homework.
Our school doesn't set homework until Year 2!
In answer to OP queestion, agree re triangular pencils or triangular grips.
No need to teach a 3yo to write, but by all means let them have fun with a pencil or crayons and paper.

rummum · 03/04/2006 18:01

Before children can write they should have good fine motor skills and should be doing activities to build up the hand muscles, ie playdough,peg boards, only when they have good control will they be able to write.

Having a good tripod grip is really important IMO, as it affects the way they write and control the pen and if you get into bad habits its really hard to break....
like Clary said triangular pencils and pencil grips are good....
but at 3... I really wouldn't worry to much about it yet...

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