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. 

 

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.