Pencil Grip help: Thumb wrap grasp. Any ideas or exercises to improve?

[StarlightMcKenzie]

DS's drawings are incredible. It is his favourite activity and draws pictures better than I can and he is only 5. However, his pencil grip is bad. I don't know exactly what is wrong but it seems to be how I googled that a thumb wrap grasp would look.

Tackling it is going to be painful, as he has had so much practise doing it wrong and not being able to draw as well as he can for a while will make him very cross.

Ideally, I am after excersises I can do - drill style that can get him picking up the pen/pencil correctly and then using that grip. I am not looking for 'things' to help though, - just exercises.

Many tia.

www.northumberlandcaretrust.nhs.uk/services/services-files/community-health-service-files/childrens-occupational-therapy/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20Handwriting.pdf

Encourage the child to pick up small objects (toys, sweets etc.) with their
thumb and first finger rather than her whole hand, or thumb and middle
finger.
? Encourage the child to form these fingers into a ?beak? and pretend they
are a bird picking up seed to encourage and promote the idea of tucking
her other fingers away.
? Clothes pegs opened with the thumb and index finger help to strengthen
pincer grip e.g. pegging out paintings to dry.
? Making play dough into small shapes, pinching a play dough sausage with
thumb and first finger and flattening play dough balls into pancakes.
? Pick small items e.g. buttons beads out of play dough with the thumb and
index finger.
? Pop popping plastic with index finger and thumb.
? While doing pincer grip activities place a small object (e.g. pencil grip /
piece of play dough/ a rubber) in the child?s palm to be held in place by the
middle, index and little finger. This will help with pincer isolation i.e. only
using thumb and first finger.
The most effective pencil grasp is the one shown, which allows the
fingers to move without using the wrist, or whole arm. This means that
less effort is used and writing can be more fluent. The forearm should
be resting on the desk for stability.
? Use short (1"), wide pencils/crayons/chalk to encourage the child to
hold the pencil correctly.
? Encourage the child to hold the pencil between the thumb pad and
index finger pad (like a bird beak). The pencil then rests on the middle
finger.
? Put a sticker or band around pencil to show to hold it near the tip.

Wow, - Thank you mrz, we'll get started straight away.

every ot i know has a thumb wrap. they all apologise for it whilst attempting to get dd to lose hers.

is it the transition from drawing to writing that is difficult for him? (not going to make suggestions as mrz's cover most eventualities lol) curious why you think it needs fixing if it is functional? (dd's is probably caused by hypermobility - this seems to be the case for all the ot's as well - and i assume they all got to be ots because someone spent years trying to get them to hold a pencil properly...)

oh, and change all his pencils and coloured pencils for triangular ones. i know you wanted exercises rather than things, but...

I use a Busy Finger Box in the classroom but you could easily find most things at home

1. Pegs ?

You need pegs of different sizes, clothes pegs, small bulldog clips, stationery clips etc. Get the children to use one hand only at a time. I usually get them to peg about 10 pegs of different sizes onto the sides of a gift bag. They might put them on with their left hand and take them off with their right. They can also try squeezing the pegs between the first finger and thumb (on each hand) then the middle finger and thumb and so on.

1. Elastic bands ?

Elastic gymnastics! ? Start by putting 2 elastic bands (the same size) around the thumb, first and middle fingers, ask the child to open and close the fingers. Then add another 2 elastic bands and so on. The more you have on, the harder it is to move your fingers. These exercises help to develop the muscles which make the web space when writing.

1. Beads ?

Get beads of different sizes and thread. Ask the children to thread some beads onto their string. The smaller the hole obviously the harder it is to thread. Develops hand/eye coordination.

1. Ball bearings and tweezers ?

Put the ball bearings in one little box and ask the child to try and pick one ball bearing up at a time with the tweezers and place in a second small box. If this is too tricky try using Hama beads and tweezers.

1. Floam / Playdough ?

These products are great for squeezing and rolling which provides necessary sensory feedback and helps to develop hand strength. Ask the children to squeeze the dough and roll it with the palm of their hand.

1. Doodle board ?

The Doodleboard is just a way of children practising handwriting patterns or letters without having to commit them to paper. Provide some patterns and shapes to copy.

1. Gummed Shapes ?

Give the children a sheet of plain paper and ask them to make patterns or pictures with the gummed shapes. Just picking up on shape at a time, licking it and then sticking it down all help to develop hand/eye coordination and the pincer grip.

1. Hama Beads ?

Hama beads are good for pincer grip and hand/eye coordination. The children have patterned sheets to copy and peg boards to put them on.

1. Lacing cards ?

Also good for hand/eye coordination. Just give each child one card to lace.

10. Bean bags ?
    Give a child 4-5 bean bags and place a container about 3 feet infront of them. Ask the child to try and get as many beanbags in the container as possible. (Hand/eye coordination)

11. Chalk and blackboard ?
    If you can, try and wedge the blackboard between two tables and provide the child with a piece of chalk in each hand. Ask them to draw the same pattern with both hands at the same time on both sides of the board. This helps develop bilateral movement.
    Allow the children to draw patterns, shapes and letter shapes on the blackboard. The chalk gives sensory feedback and sound simultaneously.

12. Stencils ?
    Children can use the stencils to make a picture. Helps develop pencil control and special awareness among other things.

13. Feathers ?
    Ask the children to try and balance a feather on different parts of their body. This helps to develop balance and coordination.

14. Handhugger pens ?
    Hand hugger pens are the triangular shaped pens. These help the children to establish a better pencil grip.

15. Tissue paper strips ?
    Place the child?s palm (at the wrist) on the end of a strip of tissue paper. Ask them to only use their middle finger to get the paper to scrunch up under their hand.
    Repeat, but this time place the side of the child?s hand on one end of the tissue strip and ask them to only use their thumb to scrunch up the paper and bring it under their hand.
    These activities really help to develop the hand arch, web space and muscle tone of the hand.

16. Stickers ?
    Children love stickers. Just peeling them off provides an opportunity to develop fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination.

17. Peg boards ?
    These can be peg boards where the child has to place pegs in the holes, maybe copying patterns.
    They can be the boards with plastic pegs already on where they have to stretch elastic bands between them to make patterns.

Ha, ha. Good luck changing it. I have a thumb wrap grip - and neat, fast handwriting and my hand does not tire quickly. I have tried changing it many times over the years, but any other grip just does not feel stable or comfortable. I am very hypermobile.

I have also been nagging my dss to change their pencil grips, because guess what? They both have a case of severe thumb wrap. I have had absolutely no success with them, either, but then since they both have perfectly acceptable handwriting and it looks like a case of severe hypocrisy to make too much fuss about it when I do it myself, I haven't done much more than get large triangular pencils for them in the hope that will help (it does reduce the degree of thumb wrap, but does not eradicate it...), try a few pencil grips (these definitely made no difference, except to be a large annoyance on the pencil) and nag them. They complain they can't write neatly holding the pencil any other way, any other way is uncomfortable and they don't see the point in practising alternatives when they don't have a problem with how they are doing it, now. I can kind of see their point. And no, they have no trouble whatsoever with any other fine motor skills - in fact, ds2 is exceptionally dextrous.

Hmmm. Well ds doesn't do writing yet but incredibly detailed drawings. He drew aspic of me having a c-section with all the details of the bed, the baby, the layers of stomach and all the medical equipment

He is kind of home-schooled-ish and we've just not done writing yet.
However, an independent OT said his pencil grip will mean that he'll be slow at writing at school and find it hard to keep up, particularly as his processing ability is also slow.

did that independent ot also have a thumb wrap?

dd2 uses a lap top.

i'm not suggesting you ignore it - just that if it isn't causing difficulties now, it may not. i would think that if he can draw quickly, easily and efficiently, then it's reasonable to expect that he could write that way too. kids whose thumb wraps or hypermobility are problematic often have difficulty drawing as well... sometimes we try to fix stuff that isn't a problem. neither the ot nor i have any idea how dd2 manages to use a mouse. the way her hands work, we'd have refused to believe it would be possible. but she's v functional.

i would do all of the activities suggested. but i would do them to promote fine motor, and not focus too much on eradicating the thumb wrap per se. it doesn't sound as though he has too much difficulty with fine motor though?

I think he presses to hard too.

Not sure about the OT's grip. I didn't know he had problems until I got her report.

I don't know. DD1 had a terrible grip at first, not a thumb wrap but held the pen so lightly she barely made a mark on the page. She was always given felt tips to write with as any thing else wasn't dark enough. She had quite a lot of small group motor skill work at school and we did exercises at home and she has chosen her own pencil grip--it's not a usual one but it's quite effective and her handwriting is very readable (for a 5yo) and she doesn't struggle to write quickly.

So I would do the excersices and all but not worry if he didn't change in the end.

for pressing on too hard I use "spy messages" which are written in a carbon copy book ... to send the message to one person you have to learn to not press too hard.

I use 2 or 3B pencils for pupils who struggle to make a mark as the "lead" is softer it is easier to get a mark.