Holding pencils and letter formation.

[Pyrrah]

I may be being totally PFB here so please say if it's the case.

DD is at a pre-school nursery and I've noticed that they are teaching the kids how to write their names as she brings them home for me to see.

Before she went there she did a lot of drawing and colouring at home and right from when she was tiny I was careful to make sure that she held the pencil properly so she didn't have to re-learn later.

The last few weeks I have noticed that she is now holding the pencil in her fist instead.

I got her to trace over some dots to write her name on a birthday card to DH and noticed that she isn't using the right start points or movements at all.

Should I ask her teacher to keep an eye on how she is holding her pencil and correct it or just leave it till she gets to Reception? Is it important that letter formation is taught straight away?

I'm in no rush for her to learn to write or anything like that - but if they are going to teach her to write her name it seems sensible to do it correctly from the start? I also find it odd that she has gone from holding a pencil perfectly to holding it in her fist.

Children should be taught correct pencil grip from the start. It makes life much easier for them in the long run.

We teach children using a froggy legs routine: www.phonicsinternational.com/FR_PI_Posters_for_phonics_routines.pdf (scroll down to section 3)

I would ask them not to do it with her if they don't have time to do it properly. If she is doing it properly already why have the extra work to do later of re-learning

Ps I have no experience teaching children except my own, all my students are at university. I may be talking rubbish

Sort it NOW!!!!
I speak as one (and a teacher to boot ) who let it go with dd in nursery and she has never broken the habit. It's not a fist hold, but she bunches her fingers round the pen in what looks like a very uncomfortable pose that must surely inhibit flow. I was told at the time by my literacy co-ordinator that Nursery is the place to get it sorted and I didn't take it seriously enough.

Thanks.

I'll have a quick word with the teacher (she is very approachable - unlike the two TAs).

She seemed very keen on the dot drawing thing so I might get one of those books with the dots all drawn and keep an eye on how she's forming letter.

Possibly she is copying the other kids as she thinks this is the "correct" way to do it.

I have had this with DD in reception to a certain extent as she can read pretty well and came home and sounded out C A T etc because the other kids did.

Oh now I'm worried. DS (3.4) not only doesn't hold pencils correctly he also uses his middle finger to point. Problem is no matter how often I encourage him to use his pointer, show him how to old a pencil he just shouts NO! And does it his way. Is this going to be a problem later? Should I be more forceful?
Also, he is not able to control his pencil past the odd scribble but can follow the dots with fingering an iPad when doing letters - is this something that I need to workon too?

I think the difference between you and the OP was that her DC was doing it correctly and stopped.

I would keep showing the correct way but not make a big deal of it at this stage...

I've got to be honest but IMHO some nurseries/pre schools rush into teaching children to write their name (before some are physically ready) without teaching them correct letter formation and good pencil grip. Often it's done by copying a name card - which involves the child drawing the letter shapes rather than writing or tracing their name which is good fine motor practise but not teaching how to write.

Just for info, but DS's OT department policy is not to teach specific pen grip (tripod). They no longer do this - they are comfortable with alternatives.
Letter formation is a different matter though - they do practise correct letter formation (and practise and practise - DS did 15 minutes a day during the summer holiday on letter formation)

mrz - I'm pretty sure that is what they are doing, or at least there were no dots and you couldn't have traced through the paper.

When I drew the dots out for her to write her name I put a bigger dot where she needed to start the letter but she was doing everything in a very odd way.

Would it be sensible of me to do some work on letter formation with her at home?

I've been very wary of doing anything outside school other than playing the usual games and reading bedtime stories. She's going to have plenty of years of academia ahead and I want her to doing all the free-playing she can right now. She's a bright kid and loves learning things so it won't be a case of forcing her to do it, but is it too early? She's 3.6.

Simpson - I wondered if that might be the case. Kids do seem to like to do what their peers are doing.

A friend of mine's daughter (who won scholarships to 4 super-selectives a year later) was doing very badly at maths having been way ahead in previous years. Her mother was horrified - especially as she is a mathematician herself. It turned out that her DD had been watching the other kids and thought that you needed to put some wrong answers down and so had been deliberately writing the wrong thing.

Let's just say that 2 weeks later she was called in as the school were worried that she might be tutoring her daughter all night as she had gone from near the bottom of the class to easily top!

auntevil - would they correct a fist hold? I'm not a stickler for things myself - never did manage to learn joined up writing for example so interested to know how they would teach kids to hold a pen in a range of ways.

It's not a case of teaching different ways, more a recognition that there are several ways that you can hold a pencil and still have good control to form letters correctly.
So if your DC goes to OT for help with poor writing, they keep the existing grip, but work on the formation. They would probably only intervene if the grip was prohibiting the formation.

As auntevil says there isn't a single correct grip. The grip must however be comfortable and efficient ...if it hurts or results in poor pencil control it needs to be altered.