Pencil Grasp Development

• Principles of Development
• Stages of Pencil Grip
• How To Support Pencil Grip Development
• Resources (including a download!)
• References

When your toddler first grabs a thick crayon and puts it to paper (hopefully not to your walls!), this is the grasp you could be seeing.

It is a “fisted grasp”, and your toddler will be using movement from the shoulder to get the crayon to move across the paper.

As your toddler gains more control over arm and hand muscles, you will see this digital pronate “palmar" grasp being used.

Here, the pencil lies across the palm of the hand and your child’s elbow is held out to the side a bit.

The shoulder muscles are steadier, and your child is using the arm muscles to move the crayon around, as well as the shoulder muscles.

This photo shows a toddler beginning to engage the fingers (the digits) but the crayon is still across the palm of the hand.

This is sometimes, misleadingly, called an “immature” 5-finger pencil grasp – it is immature because it is not the 3-finger grasp that is used in school, but it is a perfectly mature grasp for a 4-year old!

As you can see, there are 5 fingers holding the pencil.

With this 5-finger pencil grasp, the wrist is usually held off the table and wrist movements are used for coloring.

The crayon is often held very tightly initially, but as the hand muscles develop, you should see a few finger movements emerging.

This left-handed toddler has developed a 5 point pencil grasp that is appropriate for her age.

Sometimes kids use 4 fingers instead of 5, but regardless, this grip is static - movement is primarily coming from the wrist and hand, and not from the fingers.

By age 5-6, or even a bit later with some children, they should be comfortable using a tripod pencil grip, where the thumb, middle and index fingers are grasping the pencil or crayon.

At first, the fingers will be held stiffly (a "static tripod" grip) and your child may still use wrist movements to draw and color.

Squeezing, rolling, pinching and squishing playdough will give your child's hands a real workout!

A parent from India once shared with me that in her village, mothers give their children real bread dough to play with for this very reason!

Need playdough activity ideas? Check out these free activities on my site!

Cutting with scissors helps develop hand strength and teaches a child to use both hands together cooperatively.

Even toddlers can start snipping with safety scissors - check out my page about getting your child started with scissor skills!

• Get started with scissor skills - part 1

In this digital age, it is more important than ever to help your child get lots of hands-on activities to balance out screen time on devices. 

From threading large beads, building with blocks, help your child get engaged with hands on activities to optimize fine motor development!

• Toddler fine motor activities
• Preschool and Kindergarten fine motor activities

Do you have questions about your child's pencil grip, or about what constitutes a poor pencil grip?

This printable resource aims to help by answering common questions that teachers and parents have about how a child should hold a pencil.

Many people think that the dynamic tripod grip is the only functional way to hold the pencil, but in reality, there are some variations on the tripod grip that can also be functional – I show these, as well as photos of dysfunctional grips and feedback on each.

Thank you for visiting this page on pencil grasp development! I hope you found it helpful!

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Please consult your local health professional if you are in any way concerned about your child's pencil grasp development.