Tired of saying to kids "pinch the pencil", "don't wrap your fingers", "don't hold the pencil so tight"...too many "don'ts"!! And kids seem to hear that all day long, in school and at home; "don't talk in class", don't eat right now we are about to have dinner", and the litany goes on. We here are some ideas for at least limiting the "pencil grip don'ts":

• Undo a medium paper clip and wrap one end to the base of the pencil and use the longer end as a place to put the child's index finger it holds the pencil without slipping and the child can then relax his/her hand to concentrate on what is going onto the paper rather than keeping the pencil from slipping.
• A simple small hair clip can attach at the end of a pencil and separate the thumb and the index finer at the same time (by holding the top part of the clip) creating a tripod grasp.
• Hair scrunchies are soft and place over the knuckles of the hand and then inserting a pencil with one twist around it forces the pencil into the web space, secures the grasp and provides tripod positioning!
  

These are but a few ideas for creating positive handwriting /pencil habits!

Special Thanks to Susan N. Schiber Orloff and Children's Special Services LLC for this week's therapy tip! Please support our contributing authors and vendors. Visit Children's Special Services, LLC on the web at http://www.childrens-services.com.