The number 1 way to support your child with their pencil grip.

If you are currently preparing your child for their 4+ Assessment for 2026 entry, you will know that pencil grip will be very important in their assessments.

You will know that your child will need to hold their pencil ‘correctly’ and that this will be one of the aspects that will be assessed in their 4+ Assessments.

I’m going to share with you the #1 way to support your child with their pencil grip and if you are not able to use this strategy, I’m going to share with you a bonus tip.

The #1 way to support your child with their pencil grip

Start as early as possible giving your child a pencil to hold and model to them how to hold it.

I don’t remember the exact day and time that I started doing this with my son but I do remember that he was still crawling when I started providing him with a variety of writing tools.

By starting early, you are allowing your child to understand how to hold their pencil.

You might think that this is just a waste of time and you would be very wrong. Just because you don’t see results instantly doesn’t meant that those results aren’t coming.

Once my son would have the pencil in his hand, I would show him how to hold it. Of course, he would mostly just ignore me but there were times where he would have that spark of interest and he would try to copy me. After all, at this very young age, that’t how children are learning. They are observing what we do and copying that.

As time progressed and I continued to do this consistently and daily something magical happened. He was starting to hold the pen/pencil/crayon correctly!

Now at nearly the age of 3, he knows exactly how to hold his pencil. When I say to him, ‘Please hold it correctly, he knows exactly what I mean.’

His natural way to want to hold the pencil is with his hand over the top of the pencil but he knows how to hold the pencil when I ask him to hold it the way I’ve taught him.

He has committed it to his muscle memory. And I am delighted, Because I know how challenging it can be to teach children pencil grip and how much it impacts their writing in their future if it is not taught early on.

If you’ve not started early like we did, it’s okay. There is no better time to start than now, Start with daily 5 minutes dedicated to writing. Sit with your child with a writing tool of your choice and just get writing. Model to them how to hold their pencil and draw with them. Show them how much you enjoy writing. Your love for writing will sink deep into them and they will also grow to love it.

Not a day goes by that my son doesn’t ask me to write something.

Not a day goes by that I don’t provide him with pencil and paper or with a resource to write on.

Join me for my FREE Webinar on Saturday July 5th for The BEST way to prepare your child for their 4+ Assessment for 2026 entry.