My son used the conventional pencil grip and Handwriting without Tears. While using HWT he formed letters correctly most of the time, at least when I was watching him, but I think he would go back to forming them the way that was easiest for him when I wasn't. He would occasionally write 2's and 5's backwards. He didn't get OT for his handwriting because his handwriting was legible enough if he didn't have to write any longer than 5 minutes. Insurance wouldn't pay for OT and we couldn't afford it. He wasn't diagnosed with dysgraphia until he was 11 and we were told it was too late for OT to do any good.

We couldn't get any professional help so we had to find answers on our own. I started watching him write and do other fine motor things and realized that part of my son's problem was that his top finger joints bend backwards easily so they don't provide a lot of support for a pencil or a knife. His hands tire quickly if he holds the pencil correctly. He did hand strengthening exercises with a ball--it just didn't fix the real problem.

I asked by dad and other relatives if they had this difference. I wanted to know if my son had possibly inherited this difference. I thought if I found someone else in the family with this they could give us advice on how to work around the issues. My dad, who is very strong, has one finger that bends back like this on his left hand. He said he never noticed it until I asked him to check this. He is right handed so it never causes problems with handwriting. We didn't find anyone else.

So I just kept looking online until I found someone with a similar problem and I even managed to find an OT with the same problem. I found this discussion along with a picture of an alternative pencil grip that she uses that I think my son can use if his hands get tired using the traditional pencil grip. It might be like everything else he tries and help just a little, but at least my son can see that he is not alone and there are other people with similar issues that need to do things a little differently.

http://edsaus.ning.com/forum/topics/hypermobile-fingers-pens?commentId=2436044%3AComment%3A9529

My son takes notes with his iPhone. He taught himself to type and can do 60 wpm so handwriting issues don't hold him back.