How to support your child to hold a pen

In child development, the progression of writing grips is an important aspect of fine motor skill development. It typically begins with the fistal grasp, also known as the palmar grasp, where the child holds a writing tool with their entire fist, using their whole arm to create marks. As their hand and finger muscles strengthen, children transition to the digital pronate grasp, in which they hold the tool with fingers facing downwards and use a more controlled wrist motion.

Next, children develop the quadrupod grasp, where they hold the pencil with four fingers, often with a bit more stability and precision. Finally, the tripod grip emerges as the most mature and efficient grip. In this grip, the child holds the pencil with the thumb, index, and middle fingers, allowing for precise control and ease of movement. This progression supports the development of handwriting skills and is a key milestone in early childhood education. As with all areas of child development, one size doesn’t fit all - some children will go from a whole hand grip to tripod with ease, others will need some support and there is plenty you can do to help.

Tips for success:

1. Gross Motor Skills

Research shows that children who are exposed to more gross motor opportunities have improved fine motor skills and, therefore, handwriting. Taking your child swimming, to the park, to tennis lessons, etc is all paving the way to better handwriting! Exercising muscles in the shoulders, neck, core and arms will reduce the amount of fatigue your child may experience when asked to write for a sustained period of time.

2. Fine Motor Skills

In today’s fast-paced society, we’re all guilty of rushing through the day, but what if I told you that zipping up the coat, eating with a knife and fork, turning the pages in a book were all steps to success in writing. There are many suggested activities for fine motor but the best ways are just giving your child responsibility for addressing their basic needs.

3. Pencil Grips

Whether your child is just beginning to write their name or segmenting words in captions or sentences, finding an effective grip is key. This should not be rushed as different children will respond to different ones. The best way to test is to give your child different grips, set a 1 min timer for each grip and ask them to write their name until the timer runs out and see which is neatest.