Correcting poor pencil grip

This post is sponsored by The Pencil Grip, but all thoughts are my own.  This post may contain affiliate links for your shopping convenience. View our full disclosure policy HERE.

When The Pencil Grip company offered to send me a set of their pencil grips to try out and review, I knew right away that I wanted to use it with the girl I tutor.  Her handwriting is often hard to read.  I've learned that she is capable of writing neater but is often rushed and tired by the time I see her after she has been in school all day.  However, I've noticed that she does not have a good pencil grip.  Unfortunately, now that she is in 4th grade, I think the bad habits have set in.  I still wanted to give the pencil grips a try.  She was is excited to be able to use them.

This is her normal grip.  I do not know any of the technical terms, but I know she isn't holding the pen correctly and her thumb crosses over and doesn't support the pen at all.  The Pencil Grip has designed 3 different levels of grip designed for training their fingers and their grip, transitioning them and then graduating them to a correct grip.  We started with The Crossover Grip.  

 This grip really caused her to keep her thumb in the correct position and have more of a pincher grip on the pen.

Then we moved to the Pinch Grip, which really helped her to keep her fingers in the correct places.  All of the grips are designed for left and right handers and there is a little L and R on the grips to show them the correct placement of their thumb.  

We moved to the Pencil Grip, which I thought she would like the best since it was the least constraining of the grips.  After using all three, she said she liked the Crossover Grip the best.  In all reality, that was probably great news that she liked that one because she probably needs to start there and push her thumb back into the correct position.  

We did a little handwriting comparison.  There really wasn't a major change in her writing or even an improvement with just one use, but I think with repeated use and training of the correct pencil grip, there would be noticeable changes.  These grips would be so useful in the classroom, especially with younger students before they develop bad habits with their grip.  I plan to keep a set on hand as my girls get older.  Right now, their grip seems pretty good, especially for toddlers but if I notice a change, I now have the tools to help correct it early on.

If you want to get your own training set of pencil grips, you can find them on Amazon HERE.  I am also giving away 2 sets of grips on my Instagram account.  Hop over THERE to enter to win.