primary teachers or homeschoolers

[momofweewerfs]

i have a question that maybe someone can help me with.

my son Jakob is 5 and still doesn't hold the pencil correctly. with everything else that he is struggling with his teacher is least worried about it. he rests the pencil on his fourth finger. he can print, and you can read it, but he struggles. the tutoring teacher at the school says that he should be corrected and he should be using the correct pencil grip all times. when we try to correct him he gets all upset , will change his grip for like 2 letters and then reverts back. he has also not completely determined right or left handedness, and will still do both hands for alot of activites, although printing is mainly right handed.
my question is will his inability to hold the pencil properly affect his learning and schooling. should we be more concerned thank you in advance

[gamommyto4girls]

I hold a pencil with 3 fingers (thumb, index, middle) and it sort of rests on my ring finger. I am right handed, BTW. As an adult I am able to write with a more traditional grip, but it slows me down. My pensmanship is not great, but it is legible. The answer to this question unfortunately rests primarily on whom you talk with.

In my former classrooms I demonstrated correct grip often, but didn't insist on it for all students. I often recommended parents try using thicker pencils/crayons or using rubber or foam pencil grips. Sometimes round ones work better, the triangular ones are also helpful for some kids.

This isn't clear cut and many educators would disagree with me about the importance of grip, but for me I based my response primarily on how well the child was doing. If the child was writing somewhat happily and somewhat legibly then I'd give him some tips, but let it go. If the grip was presenting a stumbling block then we'd work harder.

I hope that helps a bit.

[~Tara~]

Agreeing with Beth. If the child seems to be doing ok, then I don't fret over it. I still try to correct and 'remind' once in a while, but as long as what they are doing works, I let it go.

My 7 yr old also flip flopped between left and right. He finally settled in on doing everything right handed, except for eating. He holds his utensils with his left hand. We didn't push him to be right handed. I was always encouraging him to do what felt right, once he started holding a pencil. At that time he would go back and forth...a few lines with right hand, a few lines with left. That was even in his drawing. Once he really started forming letters he chose his right. His handwriting is awful! But it's not a left vs right issue. He can't even hold a pencil and try to form a letter with his left hand now.

I've tried the pencil grips, to no avail. Though the mushroomy kind did seem to work the best. What we used of them.

I don't think their ability to properly hold a pencil affects their ability to learn, not in my experience anyway. It just might slow down their writing and therefore presentation of their knowledge. kwim?

[momofweewerfs]

thank you to both of you. with everything else that is going on with him at the moment this seemed like the least of things to worry about. yes he can print and yes you can read the letters he is just very messy. we also tried many pencil grips and he just adjusts his grip so he can continue resting the pencil on his fourth finger. it is his tutoring teacher who is more insistant with it.

[danou]

I'll throw my opinion and agreement into the ring as well. If he is gripping his pencil really tightly and his hand/arm fatigues easily- he might need a bit of fine motor/muscle development. Doing activities with stress balls or playdough etc to build those muscles can help.
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[kanaclark]

I hold my pencil with my thumb and middle finger, but instead of the body of the pencil resting on my index finger, it's between my index and middle finger.

teachers always picked on me until finally one teacher said "well, if you're writing and we can read it, who cares". I would honestly help him with letter formation, slowing down and easing grip, rather than how to hold the pencil. There is honestly more than one way to skin a cat, so to speak.

[jen1981]

I rest my pencil on my ring finger. Always have and I can write very neatly and always did well in school. I would tell the teacher to relax and leave him alone about it. If he can write, he's doing just fine. Everyone has their own way of doing things, I'm sure the teacher doesn't hold their pencil exactly like everyone else. I wouldn't be concerned about it at all.

[momofweewerfs]

his problem is that he doesn't grip the pencil tight enough, making his printing not easy to read.