Descriptive analysis of the developmental progression of grip position for pencil and crayon control in nondysfunctional children.

This study was designed to investigate the developmental progression in pencil and crayon grip. The subjects were 320 nondysfunctional children aged 3.0 to 6.11 years, with 20 boys and 20 girls at each 6-month age interval. On the basis of a review of the literature, developmental pencil and crayon grips were defined for the study, and the type of grips each child used to perform a drawing task and a coloring task were recorded. Many children at each age level used mature pencil grips. A developmental progression, however, was shown by the percentage change of children at each age level who used mature grips. Forty-eight percent of the youngest group used mature grips, compared with 90% of the oldest children. Two pencil grips-dynamic and lateral tripod-appear to be common in older children. Differences in the developmental progression of pencil grip were noted between boys and girls and between a drawing task and a coloring task.