Those pencil-grippy things, which would you recommend?

[YippeeKiYayMakkaPakka]

DD1 is only at nursery but the teachers have suggested that I encourage her to hold her pencil correctly (she loves to draw and write but just holds pencil in clenched fist). I thought some of those rubber pencil grips might help, but there seem to be a few different types. Can anyone recommend any particular ones?

My DS has tried a few and is best suited to the claw grip. It holds the fingers and thumb in the correct place with a hole in the middle for the pencil. Couldn't believe the change in his writing.

The triangular pencil crayons have helped my DD the most!

like these ones here

you can get pencils too

Those claw things look interesting grotbags, I hadn't seen that kind. I guess it could be a case of some types being better for some children than other, I hadn't thought of that.

lola those look good too, could be an idea for a stocking filler as well :)

The pencil crayons are more expensive than usual but the leads are softer than normal and are easier to work with, beautiful colours too!

They have triangular pencils on amazon. My ds1 is in reception and his writing improved from the first time he used them.

I can't link as on iPod but they were under £5 for a pack of 12.

Dont get the grips from ELc. They are too wide and the pencil slides about.

Ok, good to know, thanks

Can someone please link to the claw type ones?

The one I have for dd is called a crossover grip. It's big and it's got a sort of shell shape on the top so her fingers have no choice but to go where they are supposed to go.

www.brightideasteaching.co.uk/epages/Store2_Shop1767.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Store2.Shop1767/Products/TPG178

The ultra pencil grip is very good.

I think (well, am assuming) these are the claw grips Needles.

Thanks for the responses. Seems like there are lots of good options :)

I find the Stabilo Easy range very good if you know which is the dominant hand at this stage. DS's ability to control of his letter formation improved massively when he started using an Easygraph pencil. HTH

Cool, thanks for the links, they will be good for DS.

Not sure if they had such things 25 years ago when I was starting school >wonders

Short wide triangular Lyra Ferby pencils

Both my daughters used these
www.brightideasteaching.co.uk/epages/Store2_Shop1767.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Store2.Shop1767/Products/ST4

One of them is right handed and these helped prevent a "claw" grip. Them other one just found them really comfortable.

Are you sure your daughter is ready to move to a tripod grip? I did some googling when I was thinking about trying to improve my 3yo's grip, and found this site among others which helped me realised that curling his finger round the pencil might just be due to his muscles not being strong enough for a tripod grip. So I left it alone, and he's now 4, at school, and using a tripod grip on normal pencils.

I have no idea cornflake, I'm just going by the nursery staff's suggestion. She currently uses the fisted grasp on that page; I've never encouraged her to try any different.

If you want to try to approach it from the other direction, then mrz has posted (on several threads) a list of lots of different activities that can help to strengthen finger muscles. It includes things like playdoh, using scissors and playing with pegs, so really normal fun stuff.