Is your child using the pencil correctly?

3:10 PM Unknown 0 Comments

Sometimes, early ‘encouragement’ of using the mature pencil grip may cause more problem for your child. 
Read on.


Pencil skills, and particularly handwriting, is a more complex skill than we often realize. A child’s ability to colour within the lines, trace over a shape and draw simple pictures forms the building blocks for writing letters and words. 

Mastery of these skills enables children to focus on the content of their writing rather than the mechanics of pencil control, pencil grasp, speed and movement. However, given society’s emphasis on, and haste to commence, ‘academics’ earlier now than ever before, we sometimes overlook the vital role these seemingly basic skills play in developing writing skills. Yet we expect children to demonstrate their knowledge on paper in order to assess their academic abilities. 

dynamictripod 
While the most efficient way to hold a pencil is the dynamic tripod grasp, many other patterns are commonly seen in children and it does not always require intervention or modification. These are developmental stages, that your child needs to go through, before they can successfully use a mature tripod grip.  They need to work through each stage and as their hand, shoulder and arm strength and mobility increases so does the ability to move to the next developmental stage of the grip. Moving through the different stages of pencil grasp development is an important part of early childhood development.

 

 

Natural way a pencil grip develops over time

pencilgrips
Please, do NOT force your toddler to hold the pencil the way a school child does, with 3 fingers on the pencil – you will do more harm than good. It is very hard to “unlearn” a poor pencil grip later in life!
 This is because when you force a toddler to position the pencils the way an older child does before his muscle groups are developed, he might be using the wrong muscle groups to control the pencil even though the grip might look right. These grips can make handwriting difficult and less fluid as well as making writing a very tiring task. It can also turn some children off colouring, drawing and handwriting as they are not pleasurable experiences.


Each stage of holding a pencil or crayon is dependent on how “steady” the shoulder and arm muscles are. As your child develops physically, and takes part in lots of fun gross motor activities such as crawling, climbing and pushing, the shoulder and arm muscles will get stronger and steadier, and this should help your child’s pencil grasp to mature as well. These are principles of development called “big to small” and “proximal to distal” . Basically this means that children develop the larger muscles of the trunk and arms before the smaller muscles of the hands, and that the proximal muscles closer to the body centre (eg shoulder muscles, upper arm muscles) develop before the distal muscles which are further away (eg hand muscles). This is why younger children tend to use their shoulders and arms to move the pencil and older children tend to use wrist and fingers more to move the pencil.

A child may not develop a three finger tripod pencil grip until the age of 5/6. This is considered the most appropriate pencil grip, for right and left handed writers, as it allows the fingers and wrist to work together to provide a more free flowing movement. So, don’t be in a hurry to make your child draw or color “properly”. Rather encourage overall development of their Gross Motor Skills and Fine Motor Skills.

However, if your child has underlying developmental delays or other difficulties, he/she will need additional help and encouragement,so consult your local professional if you are in any way concerned.


Does this means my child can only learn to hold a pencil properly by 5 or 6?
Of course not!
You can help develop the muscles so that the process can be shorten.
 
Source : ellohello