OT Classroom Interventions for Handwriting Difficulties
PROBLEM
Pencil
Grasp
INDICATOR
 Unusual pencil grip
Posture



Sits on side of chair
Stands to work
Holds head close to
desk
Legibility


Words run together
Doesn’t go to left
margin
Not aware of lines
Poor letter formation
Unable to read letters
Unable to form letters




Heavy
Pencil
Pressure
Light
Pencil
Pressure


Break crayons or
pencil tips
Tears paper with
pencil tip
Hand fatigue

Unable to read words

SOLUTIONS
 Functional pencil grips (see attached)
 Direct teaching on how to hold the pencil (see
attached)
 Encourage parents to follow through
 Place visual on desk for proper grasp
 Peer check
 Try pencil grips
 Fisted grasp: try golf pencil or small (broken)
crayons
 Try different pencils softer lead, triangular etc.
 Proper chair and desk height (see attached)
 Class instruction: Chair Push Ups. (see attached)
 Try alternative positions i.e. stand, sit on ball chair,
lay on stomach, work on the floor
 Make sure the student is stabilizing the paper with
the non-dominant hand.
 Use a finger for a spacer or a decorated popsicle
stick
 Place a green marker line down the left side to
draw attention to where to start
 Specialized paper: high contrast lines, white
space between line, Gray Block paper to practice
uppercase letters (see attached)
 Notebook: Skip every other line. Can place an “x”
on the line to provide a visual to skip line.
 Encourage letter formation from the top
 Look at a writing sample. Identify if there are
several letters that have poor formation resulting
in decreased legibility. Direct teach to those
letters.
 Tracing: Do not use dots or dashed lines. Instead,
model the letter with a highlighter. Have the
student trace.
 Best Approach for Learning Letters (See attached)
 Mechanical pencils
 Several sheets of paper under writing paper
 Prompt to use less pressure. “Pretend you have
an egg under your paper”.
 Try different types of writing devices i.e. marker,
roller pen, gel pen etc.
 Use a large pencil grip to open grip so pressure is
not as hard
 Soft lead pencil
 Marker