Why Broken Crayons Will Improve Your Child's Pencil Grip

As a teacher and mom, I must admit, it has been a pet peeve of mine when children break the crayons! However, I have learned to love a broken piece of crayon. Here’s why…

A broken crayon will help with a more refined tripod grip. If your preschooler is still fisting writing tools, then I encourage you to break a crayon. You'll thank me later. Take a look at the two photos of my son below. He switches between a tripod and modified tripod grip.

In this picture, he doesn’t have space, therefore, he has no choice but to hold the crayon with a tripod grip. 

 In this picture with the whole crayon, notice how he does not use a tripod grip because his fingers have extra space to spread out. This is the  modified tripod grasp.

As your child is developing his/her pencil grip, it is important to provide activities that will allow them to use their little hands. Arts and crafts activities are great because it requires a lot of twisting, turning, drawing, coloring, cutting, and even tearing. Here is what your child’s grip should look like over time whether using a pencil or crayon:​

If you liked this blog post, here are some more fine motor blog posts you may like:
​

• Turn Your Toilet Paper Tubes Into Fine Motor Activities
• Arts and Crafts Activities