Hi, I'm Jenny Phillips, the owner of The Good and the Beautiful curriculum.
I'm going to talk about teaching pencil grip to children. So, first of all, what is a good pencil
grip? A good pencil grip allows you to move the fingers efficiently, rather than the wrist or the
whole hand or the arm not getting fatigued easily, and to write neatly. There are a few different
pencil grips that work efficiently but the dynamic tripod grip is the gold standard of pencil grip.
The pencil rests against the hand like this, gripped by the index finger and the thumb with
the pencil resting on the middle finger and these two fingers tucked under like this. As I write,
look how my fingers are controlling the pencil. Having this much control by the fingers makes
it so much easier to have precise control by the tip of the pencil. As I write, look how my fingers
are controlling the pencil. By having my fingers control the pencil, it makes it easier to write
neatly. You have such precise control close to the tip of the pencil. Also notice that there's very
little movement in the wrist or in the arm. Now, look what happens when I use an incorrect pencil
grip. Can you see how much movement is required in the wrist? And if you could see closely here,
you can see these muscles are also moving here, and I can also feel that my shoulder muscle is
more tightened and engaged as well. And when I use the correct pencil grip, my shoulder is relaxed,
my arm muscles are relaxed. I'm not using my wrist very much and thus I'm not getting as fatigued as
I write. Not only does an incorrect pencil grip fatigue the hand, wrist, and arm muscles, but the
position also covers the letters you're writing. You can see how this incorrect pencil grip blocks
my vision. If I'm writing the words here it's hard to see them, but if I am writing with the correct
pencil grip this is open and I'm able to see the words that I'm writing with a much clearer view.
Young toddlers don't usually have the fine motor skills to hold the dynamic tripod grip. It's fine
for them to hold their crayons and pencils however they want and however they feel comfortable,
so I strongly suggest not making a toddler hold their crayons in a certain way. The more the child
uses their hands for things like coloring, working with play-doh, cutting, playing with blocks, the
sooner they will develop the necessary strength and fine motor skills to hold the pencil in a
dynamic tripod grip. This usually happens between ages four and a half and seven. It's really hard
to correct a poor pencil grip the longer it is used, so as soon as your child is ready,
it is good to work on pencil grip but it is usually not a child's favorite thing to do.
So, I'll show you a way to teach pencil grip in a way that doesn't make them hate writing. So
a nice way to do it is to lay the pencil down and have them grip the pencil in the right place. You
do not want them to grip down too close to the tip and you don't want them even this far up, because
they're just going to not have as much control on the pencil. So the first thing you're going to
want to do is just to have them practice where to pinch the pencil with their thumb and their index
finger. So I'm going to walk through the whole way of showing them how to do the pencil grip and then
give you some ideas on how to practice this in a way that's not going to make them frustrated.
So you're going to have them pinch the pencil in the right place with their thumb and their
index finger and then flip it up like this so that it's resting right in the middle of their hand.
You don't want it up here, you don't want it like this, don't want it like that, you just want it
right in the middle of their hand. They're resting easily and then you want the--again the thumb and
the index finger are already pinching the pencil and then the middle finger is going to rest right
under the pencil--these two fingers are tucked under like this and that gives you a really great
pencil grip. So this, as easy as it looks, can be really hard for children to do, so one thing that
I suggest is taking it step by step. So you're going to just first have them practice pinching
the pencil in the right place until they can just totally master that, even if you that's all you do
for a few days is have them do that, especially if they're younger. Older kids can probably go
through the steps a lot more quickly and then once they get that have them practice pinching
it and flipping it, pinching it and flipping it, so that it's just so easy for them to do that.
And again, if that takes a few days, it's better to set aside writing completely. If they're using
an incorrect pencil grip to correct it and just have them do this until they get so comfortable
that they just know exactly where to go and what to do and then make sure that they have the middle
finger resting under the pencil with these two fingers tucked under like this. Many children will
start with a correct pencil grip if you make them and then they'll switch to what they're used to,
so how much do you stop them and make them correct their pencil grip? I say as often as you
can without frustrating them too much. You need to read their cues and don't push them too hard.
If you are doing language arts or handwriting with your child, that is pushing them a little and
having them focus on correct pencil grip at the same time when they haven't mastered it, the child
can get easily overwhelmed and frustrated. It can be hard enough for a child just to focus on letter
formation alone. If you can, I would set aside all the curriculum that you're using and focus on just
pencil grip and making it fun until it's mastered even if that takes you one, two, or three weeks.
Then it will be smooth sailing and the child can focus just on the language arts or handwriting
principles and not be overwhelmed. First, remember, take it step by step:
the pinching first and then the flipping and then finish. And then you can do things like
dot to dots and mazes. Try out our doodles handwriting where the child is just tracing lines
on fun pages and doing fun activities. Even if they're up to five or six years old the point is,
pencil grip is hard, so having an activity that's fun and having them only focus on the pencil grip
until it gets easy can be really helpful. Then transition to words if the child can already
write and spell. So for example, you could give them a blank piece of paper, tell them a word,
and have them write a word that rhymes with it. So the child might get frustrated if they're
having to write whole sentences because they're thinking of capitalization and punctuation and
all of those different things, and so you want to make sure that they are comfortable with writing
small words before you move on. To download free pages from our doodle handwriting courses, search
pencil grip on our blog on goodandbeautiful.com. It may take work and reminders, but once pencil
grip is solidified it will be a blessing to your child. And one last piece of advice, if a child
has been using an incorrect pencil grip for years it is very hard to change. I know by experience.
Children can write quickly and neatly with incorrect pencil grip even if it might be
a little less efficient and neat. You'll have to determine on an individual basis if it is
worth the work and frustration it might cause to change the pencil grip in older children. If it's
working for your child pretty well it may not be worth massively stressing out you and the child.
Use your best judgment! We have so many free, beautiful resources that help hundreds of
thousands of families grow in good and beautiful ways. Check out goodandbeautiful.com today.
Check out our pre-writing handwriting course on goodandbeautiful.com