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Health & Fitness

Building Fine Motor Skills: Pencil Grip

Adults don't spend a lot of time thinking about the correct pencil grip.  The habit may seem insignificant, but it's a major developmental milestone for children. Gripping a pencil requires fairly advanced fine motor skills.  The task is a coordinated effort involving a complex interplay between the brain, eyes and muscles.  In this post we'll take a look at pencil grip, why it's important and ways to support your child as these skills develop.

The Importance of Pencil Grip

Fine motor skills refer to the controlled use of small muscle movements.  The hand is made up of ligaments, tendons and bones.  The actual muscles used in gripping a pencil are located in the forearm.  Older schools of thought concentrated on helping children form the "correct" grip.  The thinking centered around the tripod approach where the thumb and index finger held the pencil near the tip while the middle finger acted as a sort of pillow.  This style supposedly produced the best, most fluid handwriting, but new research suggests otherwise.  The current philosophy focuses on pencil grip as a way of building both confidence and fine motor skills.

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6 Tips for Teaching your Child

There are multiple approaches to helping your child with pencil grip.  Here are some general tips to get you going.

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1. Help support the development of these skills and build these small muscles by offering activities like lacing cards or sorting small objects like cereal or beads.  Younger children might enjoy squeezing water from sponges or bath toys. Activities that require working with resistance, such as play dough are also essential in fine muscle development. 

2. Consider using a pencil that's easier to grip.  Little hands have difficulty with traditional pencils so start with something like a crayon or golf pencil.

3. Use soft lead pencils to avoid ripping the paper.  The movements will be clumsy in the beginning and lighter lead allows for a little more control.  

4. Place a wadded up tissue in the palm.  Children have a tendency to bear down; white knuckles are a sure sign your child is squeezing to hard.  Tissue keeps some of the pressure off.

5.  Model your grip. Show your child what you mean by giving them a visual.  This also helps to normalize the process.

6.  Finally, offer encouragement throughout the process. Pencil grip is the first step in handwriting and as such it's important to get off on the right foot.  Research shows handwriting impacts other areas including reading, language use and critical thinking.

Now that you have an outline it's time go and give it a try.  Let us know how it goes!

 

 

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