Developmental changes in the use of writing tools in normal 3.0 to 6.11 year old children and first grade children with handwriting problems

This study was designed to investigate the developmental progression in pencil and crayon grip, and to make comparisons of grip in good and poor writers. The subjects of this study were 320 normal children aged 3.0 to 6.11. In addition, 60 first grade children with good and poor handwriting were included. A developmental scale of pencil and crayon grip was developed. The type of grips the child used to perform a drawing and a coloring task were recorded during two trials of each task. In addition, hand preference was measured by the Lateral Consistency Test adapted from Lyle (1976). Results showed that there is a developmental progression, with two pencil grips which appear to be in common use as mature grips, the dynamic tripod and the lateral tripod grips. Differences in the developmental progression of pencil grip were noted between boys and girls and for a drawing and a coloring task. There were no significant differences found in grip across two trials for either task.;The purpose of the third study was to describe the refinement of the dynamic tripod grip in younger children by noting joint position changes in the proximal interphalangeal joint (PIP) and the distal interphalangeal joint (DIP) of the index finger, as well as in the forearm. The results showed that there are not significant differences in PIP and DIP joint position between younger and older children. However, there were significant differences in forearm position.;The purpose of the fourth study was to compare normal children without handwriting difficulties with those normal children having handwriting difficulties in order to make comparisons of grip and hand preference. In addition, children with handwriting difficulties who demonstrated decreased proprioceptive finger awareness were compared with children with handwriting difficulties who did not demonstrate decreased proprioceptive finger awareness. The results suggest that children with handwriting difficulty may demonstrate a lower grip score than children without handwriting problems. In addition, those poor writers with decreased proprioceptive awareness may demonstrate a lower grip score than those poor writers with good proprioception. Poor writers also show less hand preference than good writers.