The Development of Appropriate Pencil Grip & Drawing Skills – 1 to 6 Years Old

Year Level: Early Years, Foundation, Year 1 & 2
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These milestone and information sheets identify the age-related milestones for hand function, pencil grip (grasp) and drawing skills in children aged 1 to 6 years. They present images of good and NOT good pencil grip and also outline hints for making a good pencil grip easier.

When children first begin to draw using crayons, pencils or brushes they use a dagger grasp. In a natural developmental sequence, they will hold the writing implement in a variety of grasps until they settle on a functional tripod grip for handwriting. The developmental sequence is a result of neurological and physical growth in the child. As we look below at the development of different grasps and drawing skills we can observe that there is a natural progression as the child’s fine motor skills develop. The complexity of the drawing skills increases as the child develops more control over the pencil or crayon in his or her hand.

Books: PLD’s books may be used by the authorised purchaser within their classroom, however there are restrictions regarding modifying, copying or sharing. Full details can be found here.

eBooks: eBooks will be stamped with the name and email address of the purchaser and may only be used by the authorised purchaser (an individual user) within their classroom. eBooks may NOT be shared with other users or stored on a shared drive/portal/server/LMS. Learn more here.

School Licences: A School Licence allows access to a resource to be shared with an unlimited number of employees who are employed by the ‘Authorised purchaser’. These resources can be accessed by multiple users simultaneously and can be printed (subject to restrictions) or displayed by employees of the ‘Authorised purchaser’ within their classroom. Learn more here.

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