- Make sure that your child sits with his/her feet on the floor, at a table which is about 5 cms above elbow height. Encourage him/her to rest both forearms on the table and to sit symmetrically or evenly. Help him/her to be aware of how he/she is sitting by placing your hands on his/her shoulder and head, and asking him/her to feel how he/she is sitting and to try and sit evenly. Encourage your child to tilt his/her work in the same direction as his/her writing forearm (to the left for right handers and to the right for left handers).
- Encourage your child to hold his/her pencil appropriately for his/her age (see diagram below). Have your child use thick felt pens and pencils at least until he/she starts school. Thin (standard) ones can encourage tight and awkward grips. If your child likes to use your biros, try using thick four-coloured pens. “The pencil grip” is a pencil grip designed to help children become accustomed to holding their pencil using a tripod grasp. The grips can easily be purchased on line.
If your child leans too far forward, or holds his/her pencil in a very upright position (instead of sloping towards their shoulder) place his/her work on a sloping surface. A sloping surface can be easily made or purchased from Plastic Creations in Philip, ACT. An A4 folder has the correct amount of slope and can provide such a surface, though it is a bit small. A sloping surface also helps children to work with their wrist fairly straight and with their hand under the drawing, instead of working with a bent wrist and their hand on top of their work.
- Drawing and writing on a white board, blackboard or some other vertical surface, also helps young children to develop an appropriate grasp, with a straight wrist.
- If your child is in preschool and old enough to start writing his/her name, write their name in large letters, approximately 3cms high, on lines, 3-4 times on a page. After the initial capital letter, use lower case letters, and draw dots and arrows on the letters to indicate the correct way of writing the letters. Place the page in a plastic sleeve and have your child trace over the letters using a whiteboard marker, which can be easily erased.
