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Your Kids OT provides direct paediatric therapy services in Sydney, Australia.

For OT tips read the blog, search the archives or join the free e-newsletter at www.yourkidsot.com Your Kids OT provides paediatric occupational therapy services in Sydney, Australia. We operate as a mobile service to homes, preschools and schools within the Ryde LGA and surrounding suburbs. Your Kids OT is also a popular blog with information for parents, teachers and OTs to help with creative ways to make learning fun and support child development. You will find many resources available in the Your Kids OT shop which may be downloaded instantly.

09/10/2026

PENCIL GRIP STABILISER (FROM THE YKOT ARCHIVES)

Using a felt strip to help with the stabilisation of the fourth and fifth fingers. Place a small slit in one end of the felt strip and then place the pencil through the hole. Have your child hold the other end of the felt strip (button end) so that it is hidden into the palm.

This works on the separation of the two sides of the hand. The fingers holding the button are stabilising the hand so that the other fingers (thumb, index and third fingers) can move the pencil. A pencil grip can also help with control of the pencil.

For some children, the pencil grip and felt strip create a superhero costume for the pencil. The pencil then has super powers to help us to write on the line, stay in control of the pencil for formation, not rushing, remembering the size of letters, etc.

Try it out!

08/10/2026

Pencil tools !

A pencil tool can provide more support than a pencil grip. Similarly, we start by asking how is the child holding the pencil now and where is pencil control coming from? How much support do they need?

What are you trying to achieve with the pencil tool?
* An open webspace?
* Separation of the two sides of the hand?
* A visual prompt for finger placement?
* Support for the pencil in the webspace?

Sometimes a child benefits from more support to start with and then over time, less support. This means that the child might use different pencil tools or grips over the course of months.

OTs often have their “favourites” ! Do you have your favourites?

Remember to check out our book Gripipedia. Our resource section has handouts so that you can let parents and teachers know about each grip. There is also a handy pencil grip record page to keep track of multiple grips in a class! Comment GRIP for a link to the book.

07/10/2026

With thanks to Kim Wiggins for this review of Gripipedia!

Comment GRIP to find out more about the book and get your own copy! If you have a copy, let us know what you think. Send me a DM. 🤗

Gripipedia is an incredibly comprehensive and practical resource for occupational therapy practitioners working with children. Jaime and Cindy take something we look at every day, pencil grasp, and break it down in a way that helps therapists understand when a grasp is functional, when it may be impacting a child, and when intervention may be warranted.

I especially love the case studies, decision-making tools, visuals, and ready-to-use resources. The evaluation forms and handouts will be especially valuable for school-based therapists to use during evaluations, MTSS interventions, and collaboration with teachers and families.

— Kim Wiggins OTR/L
OTKimWiggins

06/10/2026

OT PENCIL GRASP JOKE TIME!

Q. Why did the pencil go to Gripipedia?
A. It wanted to grasp the bigger picture.

Q. What did the tripod grasp say to the quadrupod.
A. Three’s company… but four’s not necessarily a problem.

Q. Why was the pencil stressed?
A. Too much pressure!

Q. Why did the pencil need OT?
A. Because it was struggling to get a grip on things.

Q. Why did the pencil break up with the eraser?
A. It needed someone to support its point of view.

06/10/2026

GRIPS !

Confused with the choice of pencil grips on the market?

Deciding on the best grip for your child always starts with how are they holding the pencil now and where pencil control is coming from? How much support do they need?

What are you trying to achieve with the pencil grip?
* An open webspace?
* Separation of the two sides of the hand?
* A visual prompt for finger placement?
* Support for the pencil in the webspace?

Sometimes a child benefits from more support to start with and then over time, less support. This means that the child might use different pencil grips over the course of months.

I know it is simpler to have the same pencil grip for every child but it doesn’t alway help. Sometimes children hold pencil grips “incorrectly” or “inefficiently” which is counter productive.

OTs often have their “favourites” ! Do you have your favourites?

Remember to check out our book Gripipedia. Our resource section has handouts so that you can let parents and teachers know about each grip. There is also a handy pencil grip record page to keep track of multiple grips in a class! Comment GRIP for a link to the book.

04/10/2026

Why does anatomy matter?

Because every button fastened.
Every shoelace tied.
Every meal eaten with cutlery.
Every picture drawn.
Every sentence written.

begins with a hand that can stabilise, coordinate and move with precision.

In our book GRIPIPEDIA, we connect anatomy with function, making complex concepts practical for occupational therapists, educators and anyone supporting children’s handwriting development.

Comment GRIP for a direct link to our book details.

Gripipedia is your guide to pencil grips and grasp. It takes the research and guesswork out of supporting pencil grasp. Packed with evidence-based information on grasp fundamentals, it models pencil grasp evaluation and description. Gripipedia provides a decision guide for intervention, with targeted strategies and resources to make carryover into the classroom and home seamless.

02/10/2026

Show it. Share it. Support carryover.

“Pinch and flip” is one our favourite ways to teach pencil grasp. We place the pencil with the point (nib) towards the child. The child uses one hand to pick up the pencil and the other to flip it into place. It combines visual, verbal, kinaesthetic learning to aid memory!

The Pinch & Flip technique is one of the many practical, ready-to-use ideas included in our book Gripipedia — designed to help take pencil grasp strategies beyond the therapy session and into everyday practice.

Comment GRIP for a link to the book to find out more!

Save this video to remember the technique.

02/10/2026

GRIPIPEDIA! It’s finally here! 🎉📚✏️

After 9 years of collaboration, hundreds of hours of research, thousands of online meetings, countless conversations… and A LOT of edits, Gripipedia is officially out in the world!

Gripipedia is our practical guide to pencil grips and grasp — created to help OTs, educators and anyone supporting children with handwriting make sense of what they’re seeing and what to do next.

We’ve packed it with:
✏️ Pencil grasp fundamentals and development
🔎 Practical evaluation and clinical reasoning
🤔 A decision guide to help you consider whether a grasp actually needs to change
🙌 Strategies for teaching and supporting pencil grasp
✍️ The relationship between grasp, pencil control and handwriting
📄 Practical, photocopiable resources for therapy, classrooms and home

One of the things that was really important to us was moving beyond simply asking, “Is this a correct pencil grasp?”

Instead, we want to help you ask:
“Is this grasp working for this child, for this task, in this context?”

Because pencil grasp is only one piece of the handwriting puzzle.

Gripipedia has been a HUGE project, and I’m incredibly proud of what Jaime and I have created together.

Two OTs.
Two countries. 🇦🇺🇺🇸
One shared passion.
One book. 📖

And now… it’s yours!

👉 Use the QR code or comment GRIP for a direct link to the sales page. Launch pricing is for the month of October!

01/10/2026

GRIPIPEDIA LAUNCH DAY!

Today’s the day!

I want to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone who has sent me encouraging messages for the launch - in comments, in messages, in person!

Thank you to my kids, Tash and Sam who have put up with endless requests for me to take photos of their hands, to get off the internet while I’m having meetings with Jaime and for their ongoing love and support.

To 𝙒𝙖𝙚𝙙 𝙃𝙖𝙙𝙙𝙖𝙙 for painstakingly drawing pictures of our hands and grips in the book! We appreciate your attention to detail. Thank you for your patience with us.

To Francis, our designer who made our idea turn into a reality! He brought the professional look to the book. Thank you!

Thank you to my OT colleagues here in Sydney, across Australia and the world! We have an amazing profession that supports human participation in life. Being an OT has shaped who I am and how I live in society.

I am also thankful for all the children and families that I have met in the 25 + years of OT practice. Some of these children are adults now! I’m thankful for what each child and family has taught me, for the privilege it has been to help in daily life, and the ability to make a lasting impact.

To Jaime Jaime Spencer , thank you for inviting me onto this project 9 years ago. We have weathered many life events in that time. We brought different gifts and skills to the book, and spurred each other on. We had a shared vision and it’s finally here! What an amazing collaboration and I’m so grateful for our partnership. I’ve also made a life long friend!

I thank God for all that He has given me. Without Him this would not have been possible.

It’s almost time for the FREE webinar. Comment LAUNCH if you still haven’t got the link! Comment GRIP if you are ready to get GRIPIPEDIA for yourself!

30/09/2026

Only 1 day left to LAUNCH! 🍾🎉

We created this book for ourselves!
We created this book for you too!

As clinicians we want to make sense of the research. There has been a growing trend to saying “pencil grasp doesn’t matter”. There is more to understand with that statement. What does the research really say? Yes, there is evidence that there is more than one functional grasp. What is function? Does it change? Do we have any studies of the “funky” grasps that we see? What impacts are there on non-handwriting tasks?

So how do we set up our kids to develop efficient grasp patterns? We want to be proactive. When is it too early to give a child a pencil grip?

What compensatory strategies can we use to support handwriting?

We share the answers with you!

Gripipedia is your guide to pencil grips and grasp. It takes the research and guesswork out of supporting pencil grasp. It’s packed with evidence-based information on grasp fundamentals, models pencil grasp evaluation and description, provides a decision guide for intervention, targeted strategies and resources to make carryover into the classroom and home seamless.

Join me Cindy @ Your Kids OT ✏️🍪🇦🇺🐕 and Jaime Spencer for the launch of Gripipedia and free webinar. Friday Oct 2 at 9am (AUST EST) or Thursday Oct 1st 7pm (US EDT). Comment “LAUNCH”(and I’ll send you the link).

pencilgrasp

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