Before looking at writing skill development, we need to consider pencil grasp developmental stages. Just like normal development, the child has different pencil grasp development stages as illustrated in the image below:

Drawing Development in Children | plasticenglish

As seen in the above diagram, the tripod grasp only develops around the age of 4.5 years. It starts as a ‘static’ grasp and matures into a ‘dynamic’ grasp. Static grasp refers to a child’s fingers remaining still while the pencil movement comes from the elbow or wrist, while dynamic refers to the child moving the pencil using the fingers only. Having a dynamic pencil grasp makes writing easier and faster.

In addition to the dynamic tripod grasp there are a few other functional pencil grasps that are widely accepted as it allows the writer mobility and stability to perform writing tasks. This makes writing effective and efficient. If a child does not have a functional pencil grasp, it affects a child’s pencil control and development of writing skills.  

Pencil Control

Now that we have looked at the pencil grasp, let’s talk about the ability to move the pencil. 

Pencil control develops in a sequence which is referred to as pre-writing patterns. It starts with scribbles in an up-down (vertical) then side-to-side (horizontal) and then round-and-round (circular) motion, and can develop simultaneously too.

From here it starts to become single lines as seen below:

Pre writing shapes » Sensory Lifestyle

These lines later become letters and numbers, then eventually sentences!  

To have good pencil control a child needs good fine motor coordination; core, shoulder and in-hand strength; good sitting posture and wrist extension (picture below)

A great way to develop the hand is by doing in-hand manipulation activities targeting the following movements:

Translation

The ability to move an object from the palm of the hand to the tip on the fingers and back, using one hand only.

Shift

Moving object from side to side (linear direction) in the hand – for example fanning cards out in your hand.

Rotation

  • Simply rotation is rolling an object between the thumb and other fingers.
  • Complex rotation is when you turn an object from one end to its other end.

Please note that a study has found that children between the ages of 4 and 5 years use compensatory techniques when doing these activities as they are still developing these skills (source 2). Researchers suggest that typically developed 7 year-olds are able to complete complicated in-hand manipulation movements as their hands have developed the skills needs because they are able to plan ahead and therefore do not need to use as many compensatory techniques (source 3).

Some activity suggestions to develop writing skills:

  • Drawing on pavers / bricks with chalk and then use a trigger spray bottle / hose nozzle to clean it. You can do a similar thing with shaving cream on the shower screen or tiles, let your little one draw in the shaving cream and then clean it up afterwards.
  • Let your little one help you wash windows or the car with soapy water and a sponge or cloth. Wringing out the cloth or sponge works the muscles of the hand while the washing action strengthens the shoulders and encourage midline crossing.
  • Building with Duplo, Mega Blox and Lego.
  • Cutting and tearing different thickness paper and cardstock is a great way to strengthen those hands
  • Tongs, tweezers and washing pegs: use these for cleaning up toys, include them in board games and other activities and to pick up food with.
  • Turn a tennis ball into Pacman/hungry frog/monster by cutting a little slit into the middle of the ball for a mouth and draw or glue on some googly eyes (pictured above). Using the thumb on the one side of the slit and the pointer and middle finger on the other side push the fingers to each other to open the mouth. Use pompoms, bead, small scrunched up paper balls to feed Pacman.
  • Use a grid colour by number / letter / shape page and roll up colour tissue paper and gluing it in the associated block.
  • Include different sensory textures in activities
  • Using cotton buds and pushpins to make art
  • Baking and food preparations can be a wonderful way to work on the hands and spend quality time together.
  • Arts a crafts are a great way to work those little hands. Paper engineering is a great activity for older kids.

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  • Play dough is great! Use both play dough toys and getting your little one to make things with the play dough using their hands only. Always start by warming the play dough up by squeezing the ball in the one hand and then passing it to the other to squeeze. Repeat this till the ball is nice and warm.

There are many more activities that one can do and I have linked a few resources down below.

If you have any concerns about your little one’s hand function or writing, our Occupational Therapists here at Hanrahan Health can help.

Resources

Webpages

Videos