To encourage a tripod or four-fingered grasp with an open web space you may try:

• Short pencils, crayons and chalk encourage the use of a tripod grasp.

• Providing short pencils for small hands and all pencils need to reach the knuckle of the index finger.

• A variety of pencil grips to see which one the child finds comfortable and uses correctly.

• Providing vertical surfaces (papers taped to the wall) also encourages proper grasp patterns

• Have the child “hide” a small object in the last two fingers of his/her writing hand (such as a small eraser or bead) for short periods of time to facilitate a tripod grasp. This develops the separation of the stabilizing and the manipulating sides of the hand.

Before beginning writing tasks, take a few minutes to “warm-up” the children’s hands:

• Arm circles: arms out to the side and make small circles forward and backward 5x ea.

• Make a fist with both hands, tensing muscles of the whole arms and hands as hard as possible. Hold for 3 seconds and release. Do 5 times.

• Hug and Tug: hook 2 thumbs together and gently ‘tug’ 3x; hook 2 pointer fingers together and gently tug 3x; hook middle fingers together and gently tug 3x; repeat for the ring and little fingers. Arms are in front at stomach/waist level.

• Crumple a full-size piece of scrap paper into a small ball. Open it back up and smooth it out.

• Pencil Olympics:

  • 1.) Hold the pencil like you are going to write. Scoot the fingers up the shaft to the eraser and back down again 3x (called “shift”).

  • 2.) Hold the pencil like you are going to write, flip the pencil over to the eraser, using only the writing hand (called “complex rotation”, should be mastered by age 7)