This little aid helps kids to hold a pen, pencil, or crayon better. 

The Story

It started with a request from an occupational therapist who works at my school. She asked for something to guide the fingers of a girl when holding a colored pencil. We started with an existing design from thisables.com (https://thisables.com/de/new-developments/finger-brush/). But this design didn't fit in this case. So I went to work. 

I shifted the position of the pen to the side a bit and it worked way better. I also tilted the angle of the guidance for the pencil. You can see what huge of a difference this little writing aid makes now!

The Files

The girl in these pictures holds the pen in her left hand. I mirrored the files so that they can be used with the right hand as well. As you can flip and turn this little helper in many ways, feel free to try out what is best for you or the person you are printing this for. You can't be wrong if it works. :)

Let's talk pens! They come in all sizes and colors. The girl I printed this for uses pencils with a diameter of 15mm and 16mm. It's quite common to use thicker pens with persons that need help with their fine motor skills. But what is normal in this field?! Please go ahead and modify the STEP file to your needs. I uploaded an 8mm version as well, which should fit regular pencils. 

In this use case, it is intentional, that the person actively holds the pencil to write. A little wiggle room is helpful then. If you want the pencil to stay in place, you can apply a healthy amount of hot glue, or print it in an extremely tight fit. 

The Print

It prints very easily without supports or anything fancy. You can use the standard profile and print it in 0.2mm. In the pictures, you see a print in yellow PLA from made4print. 

Happy printing!