Pencil grip among children with learning disabilities to increased writing skill

Efficient handwriting during learning is important to every student because its failure can bring a negative effect to self-esteem and academic achievement. It is an obstacle to academic achievement in school especially in Special Education Integration Learning Disabilities Program (PPKI). Children Categories Of Learning Disabilities (KKBP) in Malaysia are Down Syndrome, Mild Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Minimum Mentally Retarded and Specific Learning Disabilities (example Dyslexia). This survey analysis was conducted to highlight the types of pencil grip among KKBP, the types of levels of pencil grip for learning disabilities students at school stage and determine the difference of pencil grip in KKBP categories. This study involves photo shooting of pencil grip when writing by 225 respondents from seven primary schools undergoing Special Education Integration Program in Klang district, Selangor. A pilot study was carried out on 36 respondents in a school. The findings showed that the category Specific Learning Problems recorded the highest percentage for all three types of pencil grip level is 8.4% (19 students) for mature stage, 51.6% (116 students) for immature stage and 1.8% (4 students) for other levels. Hopefully, this research can provide input to the educator to be more focus on how to grip a pencil when writing and therapists working to design more effective intervention program and provide feedback to the curriculum education planners on formulating a more effective curriculum for KKBP. Few suggestions were also presented.