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I don't think the nature of play hasn't changed. How parents choose to keep their children occupied has.
Totally the fault of these parents.
My older two are right-handed. #1 child had no issue with the Dynamic Tripod grasp. My #2 child did have an issue. We did not have any touch screen anything when #2 was little. I bought "corrective" pencil grips, suggested by his pre-k teacher, to help him figure out where to place his fingers. They either worked or he grew out of his "strange grip". My #3 child (just turned 10 years old) was given touch screen phones to play on when he was little. But only when we were out at one of his older brothers sporting events & all else had failed (he was still in a stroller). That didn't even work very long because he was too young to use the educational free apps I downloaded. Not in the house, not ever, to keep him "occupied". Crayons, colored pencils, sketch pads, glue, scissors, paint & an easel, construction paper, finger paints (oy!) legos, lincoln logs, hand puppets, erector sets, a play kitchen, a play "work bench"...the list goes on.
Yet his grip remains the Upright Tripod. I used the same corrective grips with him. No problem, but take them off? He reverts. But he's always been one who loves to color/paint/draw, so I don't believe lack of hand strength is the issue. On top of the fact that he started piano lessons at a very young age & is in his second year of playing the saxophone (my poor ears, but he's learning).
He is left-handed & tells me that if he holds his pencil or pen like he is supposed to? It smudges everything & gets his hand "dirty".
My dad is a lefty, in his 70's and has the same grip as my 10 year old lefty. My father takes whatever he is writing on and tilts it east/west. Bends his left arm & wrist to write...from the top down & sideways. My 10 year old keeps the paper north/south...bends only his wrist in to an awkward position to write.
So hard for me to explain & I'm probably explaining it all wrong.
I have seen many, many, many adults in their 40's use the Thumb Wrap grasp.
I only know of one person who used the 5 finger grasp, and that was my college boyfriend. That one is out of control. Yet he started on the college basketball team, his hands & fingers weren't "weak". No one corrected him when he was younger...and now he signs multi-million dollar contracts (his line of business & for the company he works for) with that weird grasp on a pen. I guess it really doesn't matter, in the long run?
All my kids were/are drawers, some more than others & for a few of them, drawing was their passion. My 14 year old is like that. He is Autistic & he hates writing but draws around 3 times a day. He was totally non-verbal until age 8 but was typing/keyboarding at age 4. Started drawing around age 6.
All of my younger ones are really good at digital drawing programs & they incorporate that along with the actual drawing but for all of them, the favorite tool is colored pencils.
Both my 14 year old & I have the “Autistic” grip (similar to the quadruped) but neither my 3rd oldest or I can write with pencils due to a sensory issue (sound/feel of pencil on paper is like nails on chalkboard).
We can write with pens all day long but I will develop callouses on my knuckles when required to write frequently, due to my unusual grip.
I'm going to forward to my OT colleagues and see if they're noticing this on their caseloads.
I have a young toddler who is not writing yet, but we color and draw together. He also doesn't do touchscreens, and does a lot of fine motor play...stacking blocks, magnets, puzzles, etc.
Yes. Technology moves at an ever increasing speed obliterating things we have used and relied upon for centuries. Pens and pencils at some point will become a curiosity displayed in a museum as odd and out of date as a stylus and a clay tablet.
People in China and Japan are losing the ability to write most of their languages' complex logographic characters because keyboards do it for them.
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