How to learn to hold the pen so as not to harm your health?

It may seem to you that holding the pen or pencil correctly when writing is something natural for everyone, but the truth is that not all people know how to do it and this can cause health problems in the short, medium and long term, for what in this article we explain a little more about the consequences in this regard and how to hold it correctly.

Whether due to lack of information or carelessness, most parents or teachers do not pay attention to this detail, which could harm the life of any individual until adulthood. In this sense, there are at least 3 wrong ways to hold the pen, so we suggest you review the descriptions below to see if you are doing it correctly.

3 wrong ways to hold a pen

1. Multiple props

People who make this mistake hold the pen with 3 or 4 fingers including the thumb, which reduces control, loses precision and causes tension in the hand and arm, causing fatigue and slow writing, so they could not write for continuous periods without letting go of the pen and without resting in order to continue writing.

2. Finger twitching

In this position, people close all their fingers into a fist, so the pen is trapped between the thumb and forefinger. Like the previous group, this method of writing could cause fatigue and even pain during writing texts that are too long, having to take breaks to rest regularly and continue writing.

3. Sweep position

This position is commonly used by children or adults who write with the left hand. In it, the pen is placed completely outwards, causing the fingers to cover what is being written, so they have to move their body and head to try to see, causing poor back and spine posture that could seriously affect long term.

Some Consequences of Holding the Pen Wrong

You may not have noticed it by now, but there are a considerable number of physical and emotional health problems caused by poor pen grip. One of them is poor body posture, which affects the spine, back, neck, shoulders, hands, arms, wrists and even sight. In this sense, when holding the pen incorrectly, you will instinctively have to move your body to adapt to the position, even having to bring your face very close to the page to review the text.

Similarly, holding the pen too tightly causes instability in the strokes, making the handwriting crooked or inconsistent and making it difficult to write on the line, as you focus more on holding the pen than on writing correctly. Also, it is common to put too much pressure with the point on the sheet, causing tears in the paper and broken points, this in the case that you use pencils instead of pens.

Excessive force to hold the pen also causes a person to always have red knuckles and fingertips when writing, which could create some blisters over time, affecting the joints and muscles of the hand and finger. arm also causes excessive fatigue and severe pain.

On the other hand, when the problems mentioned are from children, they tend to become insecure, which can also damage their self-esteem. In this sense, you should consider that for the little ones writing means a greater effort, since they are learning and need to be more concentrated, they take longer to complete the tasks and they get exhausted quickly, which also affects their school performance.

The correct way to hold a pen and pencil

The experts assure that to hold the pencil and the pen  (If you click here, you will find several products to choose from) correctly when you are going to write, you must hold it between two of the fingers of the hand, the thumb and the index, which It will allow the middle finger to be placed as a support, but without exerting too much pressure to avoid muscle tension.

Also, you should take care of your body position when writing. In this sense, the head must be straight with respect to the chair, the back leaning against the backrest and in a straight position, likewise, the feet must be well supported on the ground for more stability. Also, when writing it is good to fully support the forearm and elbow on the surface of the table, in this way you can rest the muscles and thus modify the applied force.

Tricks to improve the way you hold your pen and pencil

Those who have tried it say that correcting the way you hold your pen and pencil can be one of the most difficult things to accomplish. This is because generally when we learn something and get used to it, we end up doing it almost unconsciously, so you will need to be constant and put a lot of effort into it, as well as being very focused.

However, experts offer a series of tricks, games and practical activities that can help develop fine motor skills, making this process easier.

One of the recommendations is to try to take small things with the tips of the fingers, such as grains of rice and put them in containers, likewise, raise and lower zippers, fasten and unfasten buttons, open and close bottle caps, cut in a straight line, mold plasticine, among others. 

Also, there are other exercises with very practical and cheap instruments, such as posture correction rubber bands for the fingers, which are placed on the tip of the pencil or pen to correct the position of the fingers as you write. Triangular pencils, pencil tip adapters, and cork balls also work.