#pen grip

[absurdlakefront]

A student was quite taken aback this morning by the way I hold my pen. As far back as kindergarten, I’ve received countless similar remarks about my strange grip, yet my grip has remained unchanged. It has always provided the most stability and comfort, and I have always stubbornly refused to change it.

[ruindunburnit]

Trying to see something here, but speaking as a dyspraxic and autistic person, does anyone else here hold their pen in a "non-standard" way? I was often told it was odd (and by one Sunday school teacher, "immoral"), so I'd love to see if anyone else can relate!

This is how I hold my pen, for reference.

[zlatokryletz]

The joy of pen grips having finally arrived🌈🌟

[joaniejustwokeup]

Apparently!

There are four main ways to hold a pencil, all of which work perfectly fine and I was put through years of trying to “correct” my grip which never worked because that wasn’t the way I naturally held a pencil and now I’m mad.

Anyway I have a lateral quadropod grip, which means I grip and control the pen with my index, middle, and ring fingers, and use my thumb to support the side, like so:

The grip they try to teach you in school is the dynamic tripod grip, where your index, middle, and thumb hold the pencil with the tips of your fingers, the thumb and index pinching while the middle supports the pen.

There’s also!

The lateral tripod grip, where the index and middle fingers hold the pen, while the thumb wraps over the pen, or sometimes over the index finger, to support the base of the pen.

And!

The dynamic quadropod grip, where the pen is pinched with three fingers, the thumb, index and middle, and the ring finger provides support.

Studies have shown all of these are functional ways to hold a pen, and have even found that artists often change how they hold a pen depending on the type of work they’re doing.

TLDR: However you hold a pen is great and I’m sorry if, like me, someone once told you it wasn’t and tried to force you to change it.

[foervraengd]

Diy chunky thick ergonomic pen grip:

Cleaning sponge (preferably clean and unused)

1-3 rubber bands

Wrap the sponge around the pen and secure it with the rubber bands! Should fit most pens and other similar tools such as crochet hooks or knitting needles!

[keiths-dolls]

this, for the record, is how I hold a pen.

I used to do the "fist grip" as a child but teachers effectively beat that out of me. The "normal" pen grip always hurt my wrist so I avoided doing it. THIS is predominantly the result of them putting those stupid pen grip things on my pens and pencils to try to force me to use the decreed "correct" grip. Instead I just adjusted my fingers AROUND the grip.

And then the cat bite thing happened and I lost mobility in my middle finger as well as pressure pain from the damage, so my pen grip adjusted again to pull pressure from the sore finger. I can't put pressure on the top joint of my middle finger or it irritates it and causes it to flare up. The bite and subsequent raging infection caused quite a lot of joint damage there, there's a huge hole on one side where there should be bone but isn't, and a huge wad of scar tissue/bone underneath.

anyway,

Im much of the attitude that holding a pen should be comfortable, should feel natural and not cause you pain. As a kid the pen grip adults tried to force on me DID cause me pain, which is why I didn't want to do it. Their attempts to "correct" me only resulted in a more deformed pen grip as I adjusted around their corrective aids.

this is why when school brought up pen grip about my kids I told them to leave them the hell alone and they did. I flatly told them "no grip aids!" and they agreed that in their experience they found they did more harm than good anyway.

As it stands, the younger two have pretty good handwriting anyway.

unfortunately for me, writing more than about a sentence nowadays IS painful. I can draw, but I can't write. Go figure. But I feel like no matter what pen grip I had developed as a child that would have happened. My wrist is just unstable and no pen grip was going to help the fact my finger got mangled.

thank god we have keyboards these days, and having to write things by hand is becoming increasingly uncommon.

[olessan]

People were posting on twitter how they hold their pens so here's an old picture of how I hold mine 🙃

[theschalowest]

Apparently the best way for me to draw smaller is to grip the pen by the tip instead of the neck like a normal person