Acceptable pencil grips how to#

For a more detailed explanation, please check out Hypermobility and Proprioception: Why Loose Joints Create Sensory Processing Problems for Children,ĭo these funny grasp patterns reduce legibility? Only sometimes. For the most part, they are unconcerned and unaware of what is really going on. Occasionally children will complain of muscular fatigue or pain after writing a few paragraphs or completing an art project. The kids aren’t usually complaining their lack of sensory receptor firing at the joints and muscles gives them no clues to the strain they are inducing. The effects of their unique physiology often results in grasp patterns that cause parents pain just to observe fingers twisted around the shaft of the pencil, thumb joints bent backward, etc. Teachers and parents don’t know what is causing issues either.

Acceptable pencil grips how to#

What’s the difference? You have to know a bit about hand anatomy and function, how to adapt activities, and how to assess the ergonomics of writing.Ĭhildren aren’t aware of most of the problems that low tone and/or hypermobility create when they hold a pencil. An atypical pencil grasp can be an acceptable functional compensation or it can be a contributor to later joint damage. Now I triage grasp issues by determining if it is a problem for the child now or in the future.

I could spend weeks, or even months, teaching positioning and developing hand strength in a child, only to find that they simply couldn’t alter their grasp while writing. When a child clearly has low muscle tone and/or hypermobile joints, the question of what to do about an atypical pencil grasp used to puzzle me. Once you start looking, you see a lot of interesting patterns out there. As a pediatric OTR, I am often asked to assess and teach proper pencil grasp.