Handwriting grip not important, really?

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As per usual, the school district is trying to reduce OT for my son because his handwriting is allegedly "really good." Here is the thing. It mainly isn't, as he has to focus and most of the time he does not want to because his handwriting looks nicer with the shovel grip as he has been doing it so long. They still have not been able to transition him to a pincer grip. He is seven.

Their new thing is that there is supposedly "a" study that says that handwriting grip "is not important" and so grip is being completely ignored if the handwriting is legible. Of course, I have been unable to pull any such study from the Internet. Does anyone know what study they may be talking about and what it involves? I have been given no other information so I don't know if this study is talking about an imperfect pincer as opposed to just grabbing it with ones fist, which is what my son does.

I am of course concerned about what the upper bound limit of speed is, for a shovel grip. At some point he will need to take notes during lectures, and I have no idea at this point if he will be able to successfully keyboard.

Does anyone have any knowledge about this "study?"

I found this one after a quick search:

http://ajot.aotapress.net/content/57/3/284.full.pdf

It seems to show that several different grips are about equally good, but not every grip. I guess as long as the pencil is gripped with the finger tips, it doesn't matter exactly how.

Can you describe what you mean by a shovel grip?

Thank you so much. My son uses his fist and not his fingertips. He has what I believe is considered a primitive grip vs. the "mature grips" in the study. If this is the study to which they are referring, this does not make their case at all.

Thank you!

From my oppinion. If your son is allowed to use notebooks or comparable, I wouldnt care. So I didnt need handwriting, since I left school, so it doesnt really matter in real life.

If he is forced to handwrite in school at his lessons, and he is not allowed to use a keyboard, then he will have disadvantages if he cant handwrite properly, because every year you will be supposed to write more text during school, so if hes bad in handwriting, he could reach his limits and not be able to write everything down.

I would at least ask for a speed goal to be written into his IEP -- so many letters per minute, with good form. Good idea to bring the study with you and point out that the fist grip is not one of the grips that the study deemed to be ok.

MiahClone: That is what the school calls it, there is probably a more technical term he grabs the pencil with his fist like a toddler and writes like that.

Zette, Do you know what speed is considered good for a third grader (He will be in third next year) what would a reasonable goal be?

That is a terribly inefficient grip. My oldest started out with sort of an upside down version of that where he had the pencil in his fist and his thumb against the paper and then used his whole arm to move the pencil. Then moved up to that shovel grip. They didn't try to stop improving it until he was at one of those mature grips. Making them put in a speed and form goal is an excellent idea, because that holds them accountable for results--which that grip probably won't allow him to meet, and they'll have to work on it.

I found a couple by googling "handwriting speed":

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/hiat/resources/handwriting_speeds.pdf

http://www.fimcvi.org/wp-content/themes/fimcvi/articlepdfs/Cheat_Sheet_Speed_and_legibility_08_03.pdf

Looks like 3rd grade was about 25-45 letters per minute or 7-10 words per minute.

Thank you, so much, everyone.

Good question, Wreck-Gar. That it is because they told me through a non OT school rep who was not given the details to give me. The rep had asked for a copy and was not given one and would have had no idea what details to ask without seeing it.

we are having OT issues as well...they want to get rid of it casue he now doesnt get speech. AND he is homoeschooled so despidte the OT and myself having the same issues, they dont care unless its impacting the academics, which it IS and will continue to as the grade levels get higher!

UGH, why do they fight us so much???