How to teach a child to hold a pen and pencil correctly - 8 ways

Moms know how difficult it is to teach a child how to hold a pen. Thinking about it is worth it before you start collecting your kid in school. From early childhood, there is a risk to teach him to do it wrong, and then the habit can remain for life. And the problem is not only in handwriting, and not even in what hand he will learn to write - left or right. This process can look very strange when an adult holds a pen as awkwardly, as if by a claw. There are several effective ways to teach your child to write in a playful way, you can choose any one that you like and will interest the baby.

How to hold a pen while writing

A pen or pencil should be placed on the upper phalanx of the middle finger, locking on top with the thumb and on the side with the index. The ring finger and little finger should be bent inside the palm of the hand or to the base of the thumb. Grab the handle so that its lower end is a half centimeter loose and the handle itself is tilted towards the shoulder. The index finger should be relaxed, lie free and at ease, otherwise the hand will quickly become tired.

The writing tool itself needs to be chosen the simplest: about 15 cm long, not thick, without many faces that complicate the writing process. Long souvenir or promotional pens are very inconvenient for learning to write.

8 ways to teach your child how to hold a pen

1. Tweezers method

To do this, you need to take a pencil or pen at the very tip with three fingers (thumb, forefinger and middle) and put it on the table, resting it on the surface of the paper. Fingers smoothly move down, sliding them on a pencil. They themselves will take the right position by gently squeezing the pencil (pen).

2. Put the handle to "sleep"

Show by your own example how you can put the pen to sleep. Imagine that the middle finger is a crib. Put the pen on the crib. Under the "head" (the end of the handle) you need to put a small pillow of the index finger - "pillow". Cover the handle with a “blanket” - the thumb pad. Now we boldly begin to write. During writing, the hand rests on the little finger bent inward.

3. With a napkin

We need a regular napkin. It must be divided in half, otherwise it will be too large for a child’s hand. We hold the half of the napkin between the ring finger, little finger and palm. We ask the baby with the remaining three fingers to take a pencil so as not to release a napkin from his palm. Miraculously, the baby will hold the pencil correctly while the napkin is held by fingers.

4. Training nozzle

Modern stationery manufacturers have invented special nozzles for pens and pencils.They are made in the form of various funny and colorful animals, birds, fish. Such nozzles have openings for fingers and it is simply impossible to take the handle with the nozzle incorrectly. These nozzles are for both right-handed and left-handed people, and there is also a separate nozzle for cutlery (spoons, forks. By the way, we are reading an article how to teach a child to hold a spoon).

5. Stabilo LeftRight exercise machine with finger tip

Teaching pens have also been developed for children. They have a trihedral shape, special recesses for the fingers and greatly facilitate the writing process. The weight of these pens is slightly less than usual. Manufacturers did not forget about bright colors and colorful design, so that the student was not bored to write with such a pen.

6. Using crayons

Teaching a child to draw usually starts with colored crayons. If you take pastel crayons and break them into pieces about 3 cm long, and then invite the child to draw with them, this will give the desired effect. Short pieces cannot be taken into a fist, so the baby will gradually learn to grab the chalk with three fingers, as we need, and in the future, he will have no problems getting to know the pen.

7. Darts game

When your child plays dart throwing, this also helps to develop writing skills. The position of the fingers on the dart is exactly the same as it should be on the pen, pencil. You just need to invite him to imagine that the pen is a dart, then slowly lower it to the “target” - paper.

8. Point on the finger

The easiest way is to put a bright dot on the upper phalanx of the middle finger. Explain to the child that you marked the place where the pen should lie. The same mark, but in the form of a line, can be left on the lower end of a pen or pencil. Tell your baby that your finger should not fall below this line.

How to sit at the table

When writing, it is important to observe the following rules:

• sit at the table with your back straight;
• put your feet together on the floor or stand;
• both elbows should be on the table;
• the distance between the edge of the table and the chest is about 2 cm;
• a sheet of paper should be positioned at an angle of 30 degrees so that the lower left corner is oriented to the middle of the chest.

How to develop writing skills and fine motor skills

Teaching a child to hold the pen correctly is not enough. To develop handwriting and coordinate writing, you need to do simple exercises that will become a kind of fun for him:

• cut out figures using scissors;
• string beads;
• sculpt from plasticine, dough;
• tie knots on threads and ropes of various thicknesses;
• to decorate drawings with a brush, pencils, felt-tip pens;
• draw by cells;
• outline shapes;
• do finger exercises (repeat the movements of adults while reading rhymes).

Chapter from the book of M. Bezrukikh “How to teach a child to write beautifully”

We all write, almost without thinking about how we hold it. I will show this with pictures using the fountain pen as an example. In Russian schools, children are now taught to write with ballpoint pens. For the fountain pen, you can use the same method.

1. Imagine that on the middle finger of the right hand there is a “pillow”:

2. Put the handle on this “pillow”:

3. The index and thumb grab the handle on top:

The distance from the tip of the pen to the tip of the index finger (distance X in the figure) should be approximately 15 mm. If the distance is too small or too large, the hand will be tense when writing.

When we write, we observe the following rules:

We sit straight.
Legs together.
Between the chest and the table, the distance is 1.5 - 2 cm.
Notebook is located at an angle of 30 degrees. If the notebook is located differently, the child will have to turn the torso and tilt his head strongly.
The lower left corner of the sheet on which the child writes should correspond to the middle of the chest.
Both elbows are on the table.

In my class, we memorized a little rhyme, which was repeated every time before the beginning of the letter.Perhaps he is a little ugly by ear, but he helps to remember the rules of landing and protects against curvature of the spine:

“They sat right, legs together,
Under the slope we take a notebook.
Left hand in place
Right hand in place
You can start writing. ”

Parents need to spend only 20 minutes a day on these simple exercises so that in the future their children write beautifully and quickly and do more in school (On this topic:Do I need to teach my child to write before school?) And you need to teach the child how to hold the pen as early as possible, so that later you do not have to retrain, eliminating the wrong habits.

READ ALSO:How to teach a child to distinguish colors - 5 techniques

VIDEO: How to prepare a child’s hand for writing

Two easy ways to teach your child to hold the pen correctly will help you avoid many problems. This is especially true for first graders and children. who are just learning to write:

The child will become an excellent student if he writes beautifully: