Young students just learning to write have only just developed the fine motor skills necessary to do so. They are also at an impressionable age when the habits they develop pertaining to writing will become entrenched and difficult to break later on. Patient, friendly instruction that takes into account the variability of motor skill development among children is necessary to effectively teach the first critical skill: gripping the writing instrument.
Children between 12 and 18 months of age normally can grip a pencil or crayon with a palmar-supinate grasp, that is, with the pencil enclosed in the fist, point facing away from the thumb. Between 2 and 3 years, they can normally learn the digital-pronate grasp, that is, pencil in an enlongated semi-fist, with the point extending out from the thumb and forefinger. By the time they are 3 1/2 to 4 years old, children can normally hold the pencil in the static tripod position. The static tripod is similar to the standard tripod grip most adults use, with pencil extending from the thumb, forefinger and middle finger, and the back of the pencil extending over the web of the hand. With the static tripod, the remaining fingers and heel of the hand stay in contact with the writing surface for stability, and the fingers do most of the work. Between 4 and 6 years, teachers can expect the child to master the dynamic tripod, with the pencil point extending from thumb, forefinger and middle finger, with the hand only lightly touching the writing surface, and the arm executing most of the writing motions. The dynamic tripod gives the writer fluidity to write in cursive more rapidly.
The ideal ergonomic posture for the young writer is seated with the feet flat on the floor, upper legs and torso at a right angle to one another, head erect and forearms resting on the edge of the writing surface. The writing surface should be set so that when the child's hand rest on the desk surface, her elbows hang to her sides with only a slight angle. The ideal surface is slightly tilted, lower side nearest the writer, so the surface of the paper meets the natural angle of the child's gaze while she is sitting erect.
Paper should be positioned at an angle corresponding to the child's dominant hand. For right-handed children, the paper should cant slightly to the right, so when the child writes from left to right, the tilt of the paper corresponds to the natural arc of the forearm from left to right. Conversely, if the child is left-handed, the paper should tilt slightly to the left. Left-handed writers will often curl their writing hand over the top of the written line so their hand does not mask the stream of letters as they write.