Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Is 7 too late to correct a poor pencil grip?

My DD7 had an OT evaluation today. The OT said her grip was improper, but said it was too late to correct it. She's a first-grader, and we purposefully delayed handwriting until this year. (She was so incredibly resistant to writing despite years of OT that I decided we would shelve handwriting for kindergarten and start it in 1st grade.)

I was hoping that some special grips or weights would help her form a better grip. Any experience with this?

Thank you!

It is definitely not too late. Was this a school OT, or a private one? Because the school OT said it was pointless to try to teach proper letter formation to DD8, because the motor plan was set by that point. Yet the private OT managed it in a couple of months.

I suspect it depends on the cause of her problem? My DD has made tremendous progress with her grip and her handwriting, she is a little younger (we started work at just before 6, which was the start of 1st grade for her, it's been a year and we have seen radical change). If she hasn't done a lot of writing I can't see that it's too late. When my DD had her evaluation a year ago the OTs opinion was that her current grip was due to being physically incapable of correct grip, but that by the time she was strong enough (if she ever was strong enough) that it would by THEN be too late to correct what would have eventually become habit/motor memory.

We use these grips:

http://www.thepencilgrip.com/dyn_prod.php?p=TPITPG-11401&k=27471

Previously we tried these and we loved them (until we tried the Jumbos):

http://www.thepencilgrip.com/dyn_prodlist.php?k=27440

For the first 6 months she was also using a custom designed brace from a hand specialist OT (mostly deals with injured adults). Now she just uses the grip. She is not expected to ever be able to produce volumes of hand writing though.

*the school OT is most likely saying this just to deny the services, sounds sucky, but it happens! school administration pressures the OT to deny.
deny deny deny
it is like their mantra going into an iep mtg i swear!
anyone agree???

fwiw~i do not think it is too late to correct, or at least i hope it is not.

i realized my DS6 had an improper grip this past fall. he is right handed but has his hand/arm in a lefty position. i couldn't believe i hadn't noticed it before! i found out the kid next to him in class was a lefty!!! i think DS was modeling! the teacher never noticed either. then again, she really didn't care.

i asked a school OT about it who said that alone wasn't enough to warrant an OT eval, but then she proceeded to tell me ways to correct it. she likes to use slant boards to force the kids arm/hand to get in correct position--- she then gave me this 6"binder and told me to take it home and use it!
i did.
it works somewhat but was crazy cumbersome and so i just set about always trying to verbally correct DS when he is writing, well more of a gentle reminder to hold his hand/arm in correct position and to slant the paper to the side..
he has improved a lot.
goodluck

Considering 80 year old adults can be taught all over again how to write after having a stoke, I cannot believe a 1st grader cannot be taught to alter a pencil grip.

I think it depends on the kid- my DS11 has a wonky grip (he's also a lefty). When he was in first, the OT suggested some ways to change it, but DS was extremely resistant (and had been writing for several years already at that point). Through talks with the OT, we decided to let it go. Her main concern was that as the volume of writing increased he would encounter fatigue, frustration, and/or pain, but she also acknowledged that he would have more opportunities for keyboarding as time went on. (Our school starts typing instruction in first grade). For us, it was not worth changing something that already worked reasonably well, with the assumption that he would be writing by hand less and less; we found there were other areas on which we would rather he spent his efforts. Just my view...

Interestingly arm/body position in writing tends to be representative of actual hemispheric dominance in language use. In that a "normal position" represents language in the opposite hemisphere from the writing hand; whereas the hooked arm position tends to represent language in the same hemisphere as the writing hand. Mis-modeling could be a factor too.

As to "too late to learn correct grip," I learned the correct writing grip at 35. I saw an illustration in a book and realized I'd had my thumb over my index finger my whole life rather than on the pencil. Some minor cursing on my part at teachers who had issues with my writing but never taught me a correct grip. It took me a few years to absorb the new grip, and when tired I still slip back.

It's not too late! My dysgraphic ds learned a correct pencil grip (through OT) at 8 years old, and my neurotypical dd who wasn't taught a correct grip in first grade learned it with just a few practice sessions at home during summer school when she was 7.

The one thing I am not sure about here though is, why was your dd in OT previously, and is it possible that this remark from an OT re learning grip is related to something specific re your dd?

Best wishes,

polarbear

I'm painfully aware of the skewed evaluations by school personnel. Shockingly, though, this is a private OT being paid for through my insurance! I called to schedule a new evaluation with a different OT. I appreciate the suggestion for the grips. I'm just not willing to say "oh, well, let's not try" even more so when the little kid has been writing less than a year. She was so incredibly resistant to anything in her hands that we didn't even try handwriting until last summer.

Thanks for all the suggestions and thoughts!

Zen Scanner can you provide links to info on language / hemisphere dominance? My DD (with the grips etc) has a hooked arm for right handed writing, her OT is bemused. I know our whole family has mixed dominance for eye/hand/foot, but I have not heard of there being a side for language dominance.

It seems unlikely you can't substantially improve the pencil grip. Maybe it's like learning another language and when you learn older it becomes harder to be a natural speaker?

It's certainly very difficult to change motor memory, which is what handwriting becomes. I don't think it's so much that it can't be done as that it can't be done trivially - it may require intensive practice (which may be resisted) and supervision (which may be hard to come by).

The great thing about the grips I linked to above is that they prevent the child from wrapping the thumb - the crossover grip by having wings in the way and the jumbo is simply too big to get all the way around. Thus supervision requirements / constant corrections are reduced.

Hi, the dominance is basically about brain organization. Essentially in a small proportion of the population the hemispheres are on opposite sides. I was fortunate to assist a psychologist focused on brain hemisphere roles in the eighties; so, some of this is second nature knowledge.

I was able to find a book reference that discusses this:

http://books.google.com/books?id=vw...ting%20hook%20brain%20hemisphere&f=false

Zen~
Thank you!
I checked out that link, and found it very interesting, according to this then,
my DS6 who is very much a visual-spatial learner--- which is the Right side,
because he is a righty that writes with a hook,
instead of being left brain dominant- what one assumes with a righty-
my DS is RIGHT side brain dominant.
interesting only 3% of population is Right brain dominant.
and combined with my DS visual-spatial...

Wondering then, what exactly does that mean? As far as effect on learning or on Art? Or more importantly- on LANGUAGE? DS only real deficit is in language.
He does dislike writing though. The actual mechanics of it, his hand gets tired/sore so fast! But
DS is an amazing artist.

I didn't mean hijack this link. Just wondering if you knew anything else re Right brain dominance. I have just been recently trying to learn all I can in re to how to teach a visual-spatial learner...

I agree with this.

It's basically possible to change anything in terms of motor memory as long as you want to put in enough time and enough effort in the proper manner.

Hi cc6,
It is all kinda messy. First, you can't judge an individual case from statistics. And since we are all here because we are raising statistical anomalies (note to self... remember to tell DS that,) it is hard to make conclusions. In essence, that 3% case represents a mirroring of a typical brain organization. So, you'd reread any reference to brain hemispheres the opposite. The mainstream concept of right hemi = creative/ left hemi = logical becomes right hemi = logical, left = creative.

But who knows, it could be the case that your son has language processing in the same hemisphere as spatial processing. Makes for interesting speculation.

Oddly, I remember my parents saying I always tried to write with my left hand, but the school made me write with my right. Never thought about it until now thinking about my son's handwriting issues and this thread. So, I experimented with my arm hooked and I may write better that way. Surreal.

This is what I've heard as well. I'm a lefty that writes without a hook (not corrected- just never hooked at all). My mother found some literature and shared it with me as a teen that suggested this meant language for me was in my right hemisphere.

thanks zen!!
so following the mirror theory- does this mean DS visual spatial is also in the left as well? or does that stay in right hemi?
all very interesting! guess you are saying mirror means right is left and left is right. ok.

examples i've read don't really say that. i probably misread! i was reading picasso, and many great artists are lefty's. and that some right handed people, can paint better with their left hand.

ginaW= my mom is a lefty, writes w/o a hook also! she has never written with a hook. she had never heard this before i learned it from zen...

as far as my mom goes- she is NOT visual at all %/

Mom2277,

I don't know if this helps or not but my DS11 had pencil grip issues all through K, 1, 2, 3 and 4th grades. For whatever reason, he didn't want to change, even when his 4th grade teacher noticed and tried to correct. Eventually, on his own terms, he corrected himself because it felt better. It hasn't been an issue this year.

Katrina