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domchurch3
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| Posted: Nov 07 2008 at 10:16pm | IP Logged
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My daughter is 6 and like most children I know excels in some areas and needs work in others. Her challenge is handwriting and mainly with the grip. I've tried Montessori stuff with the pincer grip and I'm currently using pencil grips on her pencils. What I find is that she writes darker, straighter lines faster when she writes using the wrong grip outside of her copywork lessons. She writes lighter, more wobbly letters more slowly when I insist on the proper grip during our lessons. I use the wrong grip myself and I don't see that I write any slower or less legibly than anybody else. I didn't flunk out of college because I chose to fist my pencil. I had to learn to use the proper grip to pass handwriting in elementary so I can do both and show her by my own example the proper grip. My question is, should I just let her write how she is most comfortable or should I continue to force the issue of using the proper grip?
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Daniel's wife and mother to two children on earth, Bernadette (6 yrs old) and another child due in Jan 2009.
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St. Ann
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| Posted: Nov 08 2008 at 6:02am | IP Logged
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From what I understand, the "proper" grip requires less tension in the hand.
It must have something to do with which muscles have to work. My dh uses the proper grip and he can write and write and write without having to shake out his hand or take a break just because of his hand. I on the other hand do not have this possibility.
It has nothing to do with intelligence, but just making things easier in the long run. I hope more ladies give their info, because I am certainly no authority on handwriting.
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Stephanie
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5athome
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| Posted: Nov 08 2008 at 6:55am | IP Logged
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I use the wrong grip too. Teachers tried relentlessly to get me to change but the correct way feels very awkward and uncomfortable to me. I have a bias here but I don't see why there is only 1 correct way -- each child is different, learns differently, etc. I would leave it alone if it is not inhibiting her.
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Margaret
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cvbmom
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| Posted: Nov 08 2008 at 7:30am | IP Logged
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I have the "wrong grip" and every one of my children have the same grip I do...not because I showed them how to use a pencil (I've shown them the correct way), I guess it's just what they've seen. I was curious if I should be more strict about the "right grip" but I haven't yet.
Christine
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domchurch3
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| Posted: Nov 08 2008 at 8:59pm | IP Logged
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St. Ann wrote:
| From what I understand, the "proper" grip requires less tension in the hand. |
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Hmmm...okay, that makes sense, though I have not run into that problem myself with the improper grip. I don't know that there would be too many times in a person's life when they are writing non-stop. I do have a callous on my fourth finger from the pencil resting and applying pressure to it while I write, but it's never been painful and it's not noticable to anyone but me. I wonder if I'm more prone to smudging ink due to the wrong grip as I know I always have ink or pencil stains on my pinky finger. But that reminds me of the Little Women movie where Professor Baer said, "Ahhh, you must be a writer" and showed Jo her stained finger, and I'm sure she had the right grip. 
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Daniel's wife and mother to two children on earth, Bernadette (6 yrs old) and another child due in Jan 2009.
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RenB
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| Posted: Nov 20 2008 at 11:24am | IP Logged
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We were always told smaller children's fine motor skills weren't developed enough to expect them to use adult orientated writing tools. A better finger grip is easily obtained by slipping on rubber pieces with three distinct sides to them. Chubby pencils/pencil crayons are also advantageous to use for easy placement to prevent poor gripping. As the children get older, I like to transition them into ordinary pencils/pens but still make them use a rubber fixture to remind them of finger gripping placement. Our eleven year old still uses pencil grips added onto his regular tools. I noticed Bic pens now have proper finger placement wider pens to hold for adults. There is a reason for this to eliminate general fatigue of the finger muscles.
A young child will experience residuals of poor gripping with poor writing skills (wobbly like you said), and a sincere frustration to complete assignments from the result of sore fine motor muscles. Blisters also can form over time in sensitive skin areas on the fingers where the pressure is greatest, working their way eventually over time to become calluses.
I had one child who always surrounded the very bottom tip of his pencil with his fingers,dragging them along his page while writing. I often wondered how he could see what he was writing and always told him to "choke up", just like a baseball batter does. :-) A teacher who accessed him for common dyslexia problems (he was diagnosed at 16) looked straight away to finger gripping in his testing, among other things. As an adult he still uses fat grips to keep his finger in check.
Also when our older ones were younger, a professor from the local college told me many young adults have no idea how to even hold a pencil/pen and it all begins in forming habits while they were younger. I guess most of the proper teaching of it doesn't really matter in the education field anymore though now that computers have become the preferred method to type up assignments. Still, it never hurts to renew our grips.' '
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Blessings;
Renee
Mommy to eight, cherished treasures sent to us 22 years apart. Nana to seven lovelies...so far.
"Go East," they said
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: What's Wrong With The Wrong Grip?
