How To Hold A Pencil: Pencil Grip Trick

How To Teach Your Child To Hold A Pencil Correctly

Is your child struggling with how to hold a pencil? Maybe they hold it with their fist or struggle to pinch it.

Most children can hold a pencil or crayon properly between the ages of 3 and 3 ½. The older a child gets, the harder it is to correct an inadequate grip. We all know how hard it is to change our own bad habit and when muscles and coordination are involved as for holding a pencil, it makes it even more difficult.

What is the proper pencil grip?

The correct way to hold a pencil is between the thumb and pointer finger (index finger), and resting it on the middle finger for added stability.

You can demonstrate the proper pencil grip to your child and state aloud where you are putting your fingers, as you do it. For some children they can pinch it at the tip and flip it back to rest on their hand. The problem is, once a child has learned the incorrect way and practiced, it’s often hard to correct.

Image Source: School Sparks

If your child is struggling with holding a pencil correctly, try our Broken Crayon Pencil Grip Trick.

Pencil Grip Trick

Do you have a box of crayons? Time ot break them in half! Oh no! Break the crayons? Say it isn’t so!

Don’t we all love a brand new box of crayons? They look so neat and orderly! Turns out that the small, broken crayons may be a helpful tool to get your child on the road to writing success.

The Benefits of Using Broken Crayons To Teach Handwriting:

1. They are smaller and lighter to use, perfect for little hands.

2. The small crayon fits perfectly. The top of the crayon ends in the child’s palm, thus making it difficult to hold incorrectly.

3. Helps your child’s fine motor development so they have neat handwriting.

4. Learning how to hold a pencil correctly first, leads to a happy writer in the future. This is the truth!

More Pencil Grip Training Tools:

Triangular shaped mechanical pencils, with thick lead. Great for all ages.
Golf pencils and short pencils with erasers would be great in the classroom.
Small pieces of chalk.
Crayola markers write smoothly. Sometimes writing with a firm pencil is just too hard.
Handwriting Without Tears sells awesome mini 2-color flip pencils.
Three sided pencils and egg shaped crayons.
Pencil grip with finger indentations
Writing Claw that has three cups for children to put their fingers inside as they write.
Fun Pencil Control book

Note: If your child continues to struggle, you could consult with an Occupational Therapist. Many people do not realize that writing comes from your upper trunk (the upper core of your body), not just from your two fingers.