Are there any tricks I can use to teach my 4 year old the correct way to hold a pen/pencil? She loves to practice writing her letters but gets very frustrated when they don't look right. I feel she'd have more control and do better if she held the pencil in the correct manner.
My daughter's preschool teacher had this thing that slipped on a pencil. The kids would put their three fingers in it and it allowed them to write better and hold the pencil correctly. She got it at a local grocery store here, but maybe you could find something like that.
Otherwise I think its just practice.
You could just hold her hand in yours and guide it. Just remember that she's only 4. The fine motor skills will come with time, and her teachers will do their job when she gets to school.
She may also have greater success at forming letters if she draws them large on a blackboard or big paper on an easle. That will help her confidence and ease her frustration.
If she happens to be a lefty -- get used to the kind of "backwards" hand position. We southpaws have to do that in order to see what we're writing and to avoid smudging the pencil marks or smearing the ink.
There are other things you can do with her to help her strengthen her fingera and be better able to hold a pencil.
playdough is great, the pinching and pulling, poking straws or hard spagetti noodles into it
silly putty- you can hide pennies in it and she has to pull it apart to get them out
squeezing sponges in the bathtub or water table
jumbo push pin--use a piece of carpet or cardboard at the bottom and a piece of construction paper on top, trace a shape or simple object on the paper and have her poke the push pin in the paper to make perforations and you can punch the shape out.
all of these things will give her the strength necessary to hold the pencil correctly later. Also markers are a bit easier to hold than pencils because they glide smoothly over the paper when you wright
Show her how to pick up the pencil with her thumb & index finger. Then show her how to add support with her middle finger under the pencil. It will take practice, but this method might help her remember!
I've never been able to hold a pencil properly so if everything you try doesn't work all is not lost.
Yes, that plastic thing mentioned by Becky A. Otherwise just tell her every time. Make sure she learns how to hold it properly. I didn't do that with my son and he is in third grade now and his handwriting is terrible. I wish I would have paid closer attention to it back then.
H.,
I don't have a solution for you, but I thought I share with you my story. My oldest son, who is 12 years old now, has never "ever" held the pencil the right way. He had occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech therapy when he was in kinder up to 2nd grade. His speech problems was resolved. But the holding of the pencil!!! girl up to this date he holds the pencil the wrong way, and God forbid I tell him so!!!
He actually writes as if he was left handed! So, the only advise I have for you, is try your best and pick your fights. My son is doing fine in school, he is going to the 7th grade now, and I just came to the resolution that it is what it is! :)
Blessings
A couple of ideas: Give her a very small piece of chalk. Small chalk pretty much has to be held in a "tripod" grip. We sometimes give kids a Kleenex wadded up in their palm to help them hold the pencil correctly. Using golf pencils with NO erasers helps a little too, if anything to teach them to keep going without worrying about mistakes. There is plenty of time for that later.
My son went to OT for this issue at 4. try a triangle grip and use a tiny, short pencil and small bits of crayons...since there's less surface room, it makes the fingers go together. also, easel drawing/writing is awesome, as is sidewalk chalk for developing grip for writing.
Get her a pencil called the Twist n write by Penagain. You may be able to find them at Staples in the pencil isle, they are shaped like a "Y" so that the index finger goes in the center of the Y and the child has to use a tripod grasp. You can also order these online.
M.
When I was young I used to hold my pencil with the middle finger on top, and my mom bought this rubber thing that slipped over the pencil to correct my grip. It kinda looked like an eraser, triangular with grooves in it for your fingers. It helped, and I learned fast because I didn't like having to use it at school.
Let her do what's comfy for her.
When I was an aide in a K classroom, one of our students was having a lot of trouble, and none of the standard tricks were helping, we gave the child a cotton ball to hold with the 'extra' fingers on the hand holding the pencil. You have to give them the cotton ball first and then the pencil, or it's kind of hard to get ahold of the cotton ball. Good luck, I hope something helps :)
At 4 years old the child is still gaining control of her fine motor skills in her hands. Most 3 year olds are still using motions that come from their shoulders and elbow areas, with pencils, crayons and markers being held with the whole hand. At 4 she should be able to gain this skill and by the time she starts Kindergarten she should have it Mastered. Just keep helping her, she is NOT supposed to be able to make perfect letters ant this age, she will learn that as she gets older.
My four year old child care class did a lot of tracing things, in sand, in pudding on finger paint paper, in other mediums, so they would feel successful and not frustrated so much. We had foam letters that the alphabet were cut out of and they were rather big,maybe 5"X7", or a little bigger. We also had shapes and things, like a car or house.
This way they could trace around the edges and see what they had done and it usually looked just like the letter or shape they were trying to make.
