Design and Assessment of Children’s Pencil Holder for Chinese Writing

Incorrect pencil-holding posture is the main cause of children’s handwriting difficulties and significantly impacts their learning and development. Most pencil holders are used to write English letters, which may not be suitable for the Chinese writing environment. Therefore, this study designed a pencil holder suitable for children to write in Chinese. Two experiments were conducted herein: (1) Measurement and design of the new pencil holder and (2) Chinese handwriting efficiency detection. Firstly, 27 children were asked to hold clay to derive the hand curves of pencil holding posture and measure curve data using a contour gauge for designing a new universal pencil holder. Secondly, 30 children wrote seven representative structures of Chinese words using iPad with Apple pencil devices to compare the three types of pencil holders for writing quality assessment. The results of this study can provide a suitable shape design of the pencil holder for children in a Chinese writing environment and provide reference directions for occupational therapists and elementary school teachers to correct children’s pencil holding.