Avoid those choo choo pencils and jumbo crayons. We see a lot of inefficient grasp patterns and the big and heavy tools create so much weight that it makes children hold them in odd positions. Imagine how you hold a pen to write a grocery list. Now imagine that you had to write that list with a pen that was the side and weight of baseball bat. Could you support the rake with the same grasp as you use with the pen? Of course not. You’d have to tightly close your hand (and maybe two hands) around the ball bat to have the strength needed to control it. When choosing pencils and crayons for children aged 2-5, I suggest golf-sized pencils and short or broken crayons (about 2″ long). You can use a handheld pencil sharpener to sharpen broken crayons. These shorter tools will help a child to develop a more functional pencil grasp. 🙌
