Poor pencil grip

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DS has developed a bizarre pencil grip over the last year or so - he wraps his thumb around the pencil then the first three fingers around his thumb. He's right handed, and had a pretty normal tripod grip in Reception. His handwriting isn't terrible, but seems like very hard work. He presses down too hard with the pencil and I'm not sure he can see the letters as he forms them as they are hidden under his hand.

I've tried correcting him, but he says he finds the tripod grip uncomfortable and gets frustrated. Anyway, I've ordered a mixed pack of pencil grips and a writing slope for home, but is this something school should be dealing with as well? Will it just improve spontaneously as his hands get stronger? I mentioned it at each parents' meeting in year 1 (he's just started Y2) but no action seems to have been taken. I know it's not a big deal, but I'm worried it might get harder to correct as he gets older, and be more of an issue as they do more extended writing.

I think it is well worth persevering with one of the correct grips, usually a 'monk's grip' or the more common tripod grip. The monk's grip has the pencil between the first and second fingers, and the tripod hold is maintained at the tip of the pencil. This is what I was told by a local OT who specialises in this type of work.
It is hard to monitor children all the time they are using a pencil, especially in a classroom, so parental supervision is very important.
It serves to remind us that holding a pencil is not a 'natural' thing and can be uncomfortable after prolonged periods, so perhaps pencil work could be for short periods for your child.

Thanks, I didn't realise there were alternative 'correct' grips! (What is an OT? - occupational therapist?). I'll see what works that is comfortable for him. And pencil work is, sadly, always for short periods at the moment - he 'hates' writing.

OT is occupational therapist. I suppose they call these grips 'correct' because they can be sustained over reasonable lengths of time before getting weary or illegible or both!

Hi my son has just started in year 3 and holds a pencil in the same way as your child. (he got a 3 in all his SATS - so it isn't affecting his work)) His teacher approached me last week and said they had him assessed and have been advised to teach him to type !! They said it was too late to do anything about it ?? They gave me a web site to aid the typing

Why was he assessed if it wasn't affecting his work? Does it hurt his hands to write that way, or was he writing very slowly? I'm getting worried now - I'll have a word with his class teacher next week.

There was a really good thread on this a few weeks ago here. Lots of good ideas for encouraging the right grip. I've tried some of them out on ds1 and they have done wonders.

I suspect part of the problem is that teachers don't have anough time to monitor every child's grip enough to ensure that it's OK.

HTH

Thanks - that's really helpful!

DW - he can write with speed. I am not sure why or who assessed him - I have spoken to my son about the way he holds pen/cils. Mid - thanks for the link.

I've seen lots of adults do this weird grip and they seem to manage alright

The thing to do though is lay the pencil on the table ,point towards him, and he cannot help but pick it up with the correct grip.the challenge then is getting him not to alter it when he begins writing

We use 'hand hugger' pencils at school for children who struggle with their grip. They are so simple but really seem to help.

memoo - are those the fat triangular pencils? I've tried something similar (Noris Club triplus jumbo if that means anything to you!) as they are similar to the ones he used in Reception when his grip was fine. Now he uses his weird grip with them .

Pencil grip is much harder to correct after around age 7y apparenty, though not impossible.

My DD developed an odd pencil grip after a while at school after having a normal grip earlier on. It wasn't affecting her work as such but it did mean that joining up letters when writing was harder and didn;t flow as well.

As she was having support for dyslexic type tendancies at the time at the end of Y2/beg of y3 they worked on her pencil grip too. It took a lot of perseverance with the pencil grippers, esp on her part, but now, a year on she writes with a much imporved grip and her joined up writing flows much better - and now she is moving onto using a fountain pen, the pencil grip makes a big difference.

try this

Thanks Hulababy. DS is 6 and a half. I'm going to make a concerted effort to correct his grip from now, and flag it up to school as an issue. I get the feeling I'm running out of time to make a difference.

Thanks mrz, tried it already! Didn't get on with it at all (though admittedly didn't persevere as much as I would have done if I'd realised how much of a problem this could turn out to be!)

Ring pen?

evo pen

The ring pen looks a bit like the penagain, which seemed to hold his finger tips too far away from the tip of the pencil, so he couldn't control it very well. The evo pen looks cool, but would he ever be able to write with a normal pen again?!

The ring pen looks a bit like the penagain, which seemed to hold his finger tips too far away from the tip of the pencil, so he couldn't control it very well. The evo pen looks cool, but would he ever be able to write with a normal pen again?! I'll add it to my extensive shopping list of handwriting improvement tools.....

Whoops!

\link{http://www.littlesheep-learning.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=92\DD used these, or something v similar, successfully} - you do have to persevere though and D wasn't keen initially, but she did try and persevere and now has a correct pencil grip without the need for a gripper. Once she got the hang of them it didn't take long at all.

Hulababy - I've ordered a combi pack of pencil grips from here, it includes one that looks a bit like yours......one of them is bound to work!

Thanks everyone for advice.

I'm a teacher and still grip strangely! A nightmare when teaching the 'correct' grip but I always get compliments on my (old fashioned copperplate) handwriting. I can't do the tripod grip as an adult, maybe look for a happy medium. Our senco loves looking at my grip!

strawberrycake - I'd be happy with any grip that seemed comfortable for him - but at the moment he seems to be struggling to write, it just seems like such hard work for him.

I kno it's hard, when they're older if it carries on I find a fountain pen is great training. They are forced to hold it correctly to write, many a yr 5/6 boy in my class has gone through fountain pen training!

Oh dear, I'm not one of those teachers who uses text-speak or can't spell...I've had too much wine!