poor hand motor skills, my 4 yrs old cant hold a pencil in the proper way

[biglips]

As he got a very strong grip but his.last 2 small fingers are weak and he cannot hold a pencil properly. He.holds it like a 2 yr old does (in a fistful way).. atm we're strengthening his fingers using.play do, play with water using.jugs, lots of drawing etc as.he.is trying but gets frustrated after a while so I don't push him too much. Also he does the fingers tap on the table which is good and he had improved a little bit.

But..... He was holding a small felt pen that shaped like a flat diamond and held it perfect!!

Wondering if there's anything else for me to do?

Bump

Have you tried hand grippers? Rubber/foam that you put over pencils to help improve grip, position? Will try and post a link.

Everything you are doing sounds good.

www.amazon.com/Pencil-Grip-Universal-Ergonomic-TPG-11106/dp/B001SN8HOY

Something like this? I think ELC (does this still exist used to do these)

Hope this helps. Would say he is still very little so may improve naturally over next year.

I found that triangular pencils really helped my DS. He struggled at 4. He will be 6 next week and he's really improved! Fine with any pencil. Plus he wants to draw and write now, whereas at 4 he had next to no interest.

There are exercises he can do to strengthen them . Touching thumb and each finger together in turn getting quicker, for example. Play doh is good, try blutak, kneading dough or pastry, squishy stress balls, threading beads/cotton reels as well. If he seems to have other issues an OT could assess and offer suggestions. Might be worth checking for hyper flexibility in his hands too.

Start with a good chair so that his feet reach the floor easily. This stabilises the body. Then the table needs to be a suitable height so he can rest his elbow/ forearm on the table whilst still having his feet firmly on the floor. This stabilises his shoulder. Then look at the type of pen he's using to encourage good grip. You are already doing good finger exercises.
It might be his immature pencil grip is a result of lack of stability in shoulder or body
I used to teach these skills many moons ago.

My seventeen year old doing A level maths can't hold a pencil properly. Really.
I ignore it.

Many thanks.to everyone. I'm gonna order them pencils.grippers and.give it a go and a stress ball too. and thanks for the more tips too

A cheaper alternative in the meantime is to wind an elastic band around a pencil to form a grip.