Overview:

• Pencil grips are small rubbery tubes that slide over a writing utensil and have spots for the user’s fingers to rest. The intention of these tools is to keep certain fingers in certain locations on the writing utensil, which will ensure users are using a “proper” grip style.

• Pencil grips can be bought at office/school supply stores.

• Pencil grips may provide individuals who struggle to grip pencils or those with atypical pencil grip styles.

Pencil Grip Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g_jvfWX-Cg

Research

Ferriell et al. (2000):

• This study examined the muscle activity during handwriting amongst 18 participants (18 to 25 years). Each participant wrote with a standard pencil with no grip, a standard pencil with a triangular grip, and a standard pencil with a pear-shaped grip.

• Results displayed showed no difference in muscle activation, implying that different grips were not reducing cognitive strain in the muscle-controlling region of the brain, or in other words not reducing participant levels of exertion.

Schwellnus et al. (2012):

• This study investigated the impact of pencil grasp on handwriting legibility and speed amongst 120 fourth grade students.

• Results suggested that pencil grip patterns did not influence handwriting speed or legibility in this sample of typically developing children. This further suggests that alternative grasps may be equally able to produce fast and legible handwriting.

Missiuna & Pollock (1995)

• This early study investigated the performance of 24 children with developmental coordination disorder on a widely used assessment tool for identifying coordination disorders.

• Results suggested that an inefficient pencil grasp could lead to increased muscle tension in the fingers and thumb, which would cause fatigue, especially when engaging in lengthy writing tasks.

Quick Facts

Advantages

• Very affordable.

Disadvantages

• Yet to be experimentally validated.

To Consider

• The benefits of changing pencil grip styles are debated in the literature, even if these products are useful for their intended purpose, the impact of a “proper” pencil grip on writing quality is unclear. Some researchers advocate that remediating writing speed and letter formation are more beneficial than remediating pencil grip style in increasing writing quality (Schwellnus et al., 2013).