DS still wasn't holding a pencil correctly by age 4 so we put him in private OT and the OT basically forced him to hold it with his fingers (using constant reminders). The K teacher and his old first grade teacher made him use pencil grips but I honestly think it made everything worse. Now he is not using a grip and his handwriting is age-appropriate. His handwriting improved dramatically the moment he switched teachers and didn't have to use a pencil grip anymore. DS is low tone and his fingers simply can not be forced into a tripod position. I should say they can be forced but then the writing becomes more difficult and messy. I don't hold a pencil with a normal grasp either because my fingers have hypermobile joints. But my handwriting is fine. DS's current OT doesn't really care that his grasp isn't completely "correct" and doesn't make him do a mature tripod grasp or use a grip. So I guess my point is you can try a grip or a lot of reminders to get him to stop the palm grasp but I wouldn't stress too much if he uses some variation of a normal pencil grasp and it isn't completely "correct".
