Handy Handwriting Help

Scroll down to learn about how to help your child to develop a good handwriting grip and to find out how to access our Letter-join resource at home...

Developing a Good Handwriting Grip

Although children learn to use a proper handwriting grip by the age of about five or six, many opportunities to improve fine motor skills are provided before this point. For example, activities such as, picking up pompoms with tweezers and separating a mix of smaller materials into different containers, all help a child to improve their dexterity over time. 

Pinch, Pinch, Flip

In school, we use a rhyme to help the children to remember how to hold their pencil - nip, nip, flip. First the child nips the tips of the their thumb and index finger together. Then they repeat this, but this time, holding onto the pencil. Finally, they flip the pencil over. 

The video below demonstrates this rhyme in action...