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avatar Anonymous

what kind of pencil would benefit a preschool large or small

What kind of pencil would benefit a preschool child large thick or small thin. Would this apply to marker, color cryons.

Question applies to ages: 4

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avatarRebecca
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Top 5 in: Discipline, Transitions and Readiness, Motivating StudentsTop 5 in 3 Topics		 My impulse as a parent would be to make both sizes of pencils available and let your child choose which works best for her. But then I came across this same topic on a teacher chat board and thought it was worth noting:
"I used to be a firm believer in the skinny pencils because the children's hands are so small, the big pencils looked like tree trunks in their tiny little hands and seemed so awkward. I used to use only the golf pencils (short, no eraser, like from Ikea or keeping golf scores). Anyway, we recently had a training in our district given by our Occupational Therapists and they presented an hour long presentation on why our youngest students need the fat or "chubby" pencils. They explained that the muscles in their hands are not fully developed and they don't always have proper pencil grip or dominant hands established so therefore the big pencils are best for them. They explained that the little pencils actually encourage poor pencil grasp and letter formation in young children (5 years and under). Therefore, our district has now mandated only chubby pencils and crayons in pre-k and when they get to kinder if they have proper grasp and good fine motor skills they can move to regular pencils. The OT's showed examples of writing from children who used chubby vs. fat pencils and surprisingly the children who used the chubby pencils did better. The one thing I do want to do is get somebody with a wood saw to cut those big ole chubby pencils in half because they are too long and some of our kids hold them at the top like paintbrushes.
There are lots of different opinions on this topic but I figure OT's went to school to study this type of thing so I guess I will listen to them."

(I do think it applies just to pencils that they're using for handwriting, not markers or crayons for coloring.)


References:
EduGuide contributor and mother of two
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avatarmerylhansen
# of Thumbs Up Received (0)		 The answer to this question depends on a few things. Firstly, how easily does your child use eating utensils? Secondly, what kind of grip does your child use to hold a normal pencil? Is it a tripod grip?
Thirdly, how long can your child sustain their grip and use of the pencil? Under or over 5 minutes?
If you answered that they have difficulty with holding eating utensils, their grip on a pencil is incorrect or they cannot sustain the use of a pencil for more than a few minutes, then they need to use either a thick pencil or a triangular pencil for their first few years of education. Good luck!

References:
Parent of eight, specialist teacher
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