Tag Archives: Pencil

Stackable Crayons and Pencils {Photo Friday}

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Welcome to the first installment of Photo Friday, a place where I share a photo or two of activities and ideas that can help boost your child’s development. Please give me feedback on my ideas — I love hearing how they go over with other kids!

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Stackable crayons from Dollar Tree encourage kids to pinch with thumb and index finger. This promotes correct, mature grasp for coloring and writing. One dollar for thirty of them.

Stackable pencils from Learning Express also help kids who have trouble with pencil grasp and struggle with pinching their pencil with thumb and index finger. Nooks between pencils serve as a natural groove for fingers to rest. Stack more to make it easier to hold.

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9 school supplies that help kids’ fine motor skills

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Have you done your back-to-school shopping yet?

This year marks a new adventure for me as I add “school-based occupational therapist” to my list of credentials. That means I have been wandering the aisles of school supply and discount stores in preparation for lots of therapeutic work on, among other things, fine motor skills! As I meandered up and down the rows at Staples the other day, I couldn’t help but notice how many of the most common back-to-school supplies are full of fine motor power. Can you see why a student with weak, uncoordinated hands and poor eye-hand coordination would struggle in school and need an OT?

Check it out:

1. Crayons. Regular ones or twistables…but please not fat ones. They are no good for hands that need to develop tiny muscles through pinching and precise movements.

2. Markers. Shorter markers encourage a better, more mature grasp.

3. Glue sticks. Think about how much strength it takes to pull off the cap from that sticky stick, and how kids can hold them pretty much like pencils.

4. Mini staplers. I don’t know if they actually allow kids to have their own staplers nowadays, but this soccer ball stapler (and the other sport ball ones like it) is the perfect size for a school-aged kid to increase strength by squeezing and stapling with one hand.

5. Scissors. The one school supply that probably takes the most fine motor skill. Hands and fingers must divide and conquer…all while maintaining the appropriate direction and amount of strength to tackle projects such as snowflake-snipping or shape cutting.

6. Small erasers. Pinch, pinch, pinch!

7. Mechanical pencils. Mechanical pencil lead will break under too much pressure, so these can be great for kids who have a hard time writing because they press too hard on the paper (causing them to rip the paper or make their hands tire very quickly).

8. Pencil sharpener. Stabilize with one hand, push and twist with the other. Over. and over. and over. and over.

9. Pencil case. Ziiiiiiiip! And check out this tennis shoe case with actual holes for lacing and string for tying. Yessss! 

See you in school!

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3 tricks to help kids learn to hold their pencil correctly

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how to hold a pencil

Pencil grip is one of those things that is really hard to re-teach if kids initially learn it incorrectly. Though every child will end up settling on a pencil grip that works best for him or her, introducing the standard “tripod” grasp (pinching with thumb and index finger while resting on middle finger) is a good place to start. However, this can seem virtually impossible when you’re dealing with five- and six-year-olds who don’t even know their left from right, let alone how to divide up their fingers into different positions.

Given the tricky nature of pencil holding — and its impact on kids’ handwriting skills — I thought I’d share a few OT-based tricks so you can help kids learn how to hold their pencil correctly.

Trick #1: Use shorter pencils.
how to hold a pencilA shorter pencil means less space for cramming in unnecessary fingers. It basically forces kids to pinch with thumb and index finger. This is why the popular curriculum Handwriting Without Tears uses their own brand of short pencils, however, golf pencils work just fine, too. It’s also why occupational therapists often have kids use crayons that have been broken in half if they are having trouble using an age-appropriate grasp. Click here to read more about why kids should use shorter crayons.

Trick #2: Teach them the “pinch and flip”.

If shorter pencils don’t do the trick for your little writer, then teach them the “pinch and flip”. Simply have them pinch the sharpened end of the pencil and then flip it around until it gently rests in the “webspace” (that soft skin between your thumb and index finger) in the ready position. Watch the video below for a less-than-one-minute demonstration and explanation of this trick.


Trick #3: Have them hide something under their last two fingers.
how to hold a pencilIf shorter pencils and the “pinch and flip” don’t work, then try having students hide something under their pinky and ring fingers. These two fingers are supposed to bend toward the palm while the thumb, index, and middle fingers do all the work. However, sometimes kids have a hard time with this because they can’t yet “separate” the two sides of their hand (the pinky side and the thumb side). This trick will take care of that. It really doesn’t matter what they hide under their last two fingers, as long as they can comfortably do so without their fingers bulging out from their hand because the item is too big, or having to squeeze too tightly because it’s too small. Try using a small ball of playdough, cotton ball, marble, bead, crumpled piece of tissue paper, or tiny rubbery toy.

What other tricks have you discovered to help kids hold their pencil correctly?

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