How to Teach a Child to Hold a Pencil

From the time that we are born, each day our muscles are becoming stronger and stronger and our movements are becoming more coordinated. It is the fine motor skills that we need to practice in order to perfect the three-finger pincer grip that we use for handwriting.

Our first area of learning in the Montessori classroom is called ‘Practical Life.’ In this area, we provide the child (toddler) with activities which will help him/her to learn the skills to become independent. Examples include spooning pouring, tonging etc. as we would ultimately want our children to be self-sufficient.

Through using tongs, spoons, tweezers etc. the children will practice the three-finger pincer grip and their fine motor skills will improve.

Using clothes pegs to practice ‘pegging’ will also give the child the practice that they need in the pincer grip and help to improve hand eye coordination too. Allowing your child to screw nuts & bolts, unlock padlocks & keys are also great for practicing the three-finger pincer grip.

Many of the practical life activities require the child to work from left to right which is indirectly preparing them for reading and writing. Through these activities the child will also cross the midline which is essential for cognitive development too. Allowing children to use a whisk to mix water & bubbles is a great way for them to strengthen the hand muscles that we need to hold the pencil properly. Play dough is also great for that.

Here’s a summary of Lindsay’s tips for parents:

• Develop motor skills using tongs, tweezers
• Make bubbles using whisk and bowl
• Practice pegging

The following transcript is auto-generated from Youtube

hi my name is Lindsay Falconer and I’m
the director at Redwood Montessori
nursery in Albertine I’ve been in
Montessori for 15 years and today I’m
gonna be talking about how we can help
your child to hold the pencil properly
in Montessori our first area of learning
is our practical life area in this area
we have lots and lots of activities that
are going to help your child to practice
at 3 finger pencil grip that they need
in order to all that pencil properly
these activities consist of activities
such as spooning pouring using tongs
using tweezers and the way that this is
going to help your child is because they
fine motor skills need to be developed
so that they can hold the tongs or the
tweezers in the correct way to transfer
the objects another way that you can
help your child at home is by giving
them a bowl and a whisk and you can
allow them to make bubbles with very
liquid and water and just that simple
action is not only helping you practice
that 3 finger pencil grip
but it’s also strengthening the muscles
in your hand and your arm that you need
for the pencil control another simple
activity you can try at home would be a
pegging activity where you could paid
clothes on a line and again that action
that requires the three finger pincer
grip will really really benefit your
child and the earlier we perfect the
pencil grip the easier it will be for
your child going forward in his
schooling years so if you are interested
in any more educational videos please
subscribe below if you have any more
tips on how to help the child to hold
the pencil correctly we’d really
appreciate it if you could post them in
the comments below thank you so much