Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Tips to fix letters and pencil grip in 9 year old?

I've heard of using a ball of clay around the pencil, so it molds to the grip, or sticking the pencil through a squishy rubber ball and holding that. DS had teachers sending home those grippy rubber things for him all the time, and DD's teachers were concerned with her pencil grip last year in Kindergarten, but they both got over the odd grips somehow.

I know I used to deliberately use an outlandish grip at some point in grade school, and I also invented all kinds of different styles of writing over the years. Even now, if I have to write for a long period of time, I end up with a sore "crease" in the pad of my index finger from holding the pencil too tightly.

It's funny that "they say" now that kids don't really need to know how to write because they'll just be typing anyway -- my mom was told the same thing by my brother's teacher over 40 years ago! She said, just on the off chance that he doesn't grow up to have a secretary, please teach him to write anyway!

Geo, we worked on this through quality time on task. Speed-writing drills that target the preferred item. How many correct o's can you do in a minute? with a tiny reward if you can top your previous score. Or copying text from a paper, with incorrectly formed letters not counting in the total. (I suppose you could do copying math problems, too, since the 0 vs 6 issue is a problem.)

Even three to five minutes on this a few times a week did eventually get DS to learn some things he couldn't otherwise (and yes, things that the school wouldn't do for him. We started off with a fisted pencil grip that was very hard to change, and they wouldn't touch it because his writing was so pretty!)

DeeDee

Thank you all!

I've been reflecting on all this for the last few days while watching DD write in low-stress situations (like keeping score in a game). I'm thinking that we need to ditch the pencil grips or all other additives to force the grip. She is so set on the incorrect grip when stressed, that the crutch just gets in the way and makes it all worse.

We're going to see about starting this afternoon by working on the magic 'c' approach timing how long she can go with the correct grip. She's been working from a cursive writing workbook, which has a lot of copying, so I might use the same approach on the printing problems.

I'm still open to ideas!

I had to laugh when I read this. A good friend of mine is a retired elementary school teacher. Every time she sees me sign a credit card receipt, I hear, "That grasp!"

To which I always reply, defensively, "It's an effective grasp!"

Other ways to annoy elementary school teachers include, but are not limited to: reading upside down and leaving your shoes untied.

Well, I firmly believe we wouldn't be here if DD's teachers still prioritized pencil grasp. Looking around the room in a kindergarten or 4th grade class this year, it was quite evident that little attention had been paid to pencil grasp.

DD made her afterschool kindergarten teachers practically apoplectic by wearing her shoes on the wrong feet. No amount of my assuring them that she'd fix it once her feet were sufficiently asymmetric would reassure them. So for most of that year, she'd go to school with them on the wrong feet, and have them fixed for her in the afternoon. Then she grew, and suddenly it was no longer an issue. DS was exactly the same way.

Pencil grasp must be like that for some kids. Mine need it fixed.

Beckee--

I have ALWAYS been oblivious to my untied shoes! My teachers have been telling me since Kindergarten that I was going to trip over them yet, of all the time in my life that I have tripped, I don't know that it has EVER been because of untied shoelaces. I do get patients reprimanding me about this one a lot too.

Our OT used the "magic c" approach to printing with our son when he was about 7 and it worked really well.

She started with the correct formation for "c" and then added all the letters with a magic c as the beginning (c, a, d, g, q, o).

She then worked on the group of letters that start at the top of the line (b,t, etc).

He has a paper alphabet with red arrows showing where to start the letters taped to his desk.

I must say, he still does some "bottom up" that should be "top down" but overall his writing is faster and more legible.

I'm trying to decide if we should work on cursive, or just aim for legible printing and teach him to write only his name in cursive. I'm sure in a few years he'll be keyboarding most things.

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.

hi there, I had a similar problem at agae 9 - and used to get detention to practice - ugh.
What worked for me was one of those really uncomfortable triangle pencil grips, rather than an ergonomic one, and hours and hours of single letter practice. I now have exceptionally neat hand writing and no mental scars! if I'm tier or in a hurry though my writing becomes illegible to even me, eventually I learn't shorthand so I could keep up with the teacher and copy my notes later. Do they still teach shorthand? Maybe your school will allow a secretary's recorder on her desk for her to tape the lesson and copy at her own speed later will you work on the problem.