The start of the problem
Eloise was a relatively late developer with hypermobility. Writing was normal at primary school and in the first couple of years of secondary school.
At Eloise's school, children make subject choices at several stages. When making the choice for GCSEs she decided to take art.
This was a big mistake because art involves a lot of drawing, and Elosie found this really painful. For the other subjects, Eloise was allowed to complete her work by typing.
Seeing the real issue
Watching her write from close up, one thing became obvious:
Her index finger and thumb were gripping the pen so hard, the joints were becoming unstable and bending the wrong way. Her hand was working too hard to stabilise the pen, so she compensated by gripping tighter and this made everything worse.
The other grips that we had tried attempted to directly control the position of the fingers and thumb. This didn't work because they prevented Eloise from holding her pen using a normal tripod grip and prevented the manipulation of the pen using normal finger movement.
I realised that supporting the web space between the thumb and index finger would prevent the grip from collapsing inwards. This space could be supported by adding an angled support cylinder to the side of a pen.
Bad A Level choices
Having typed the majority of her GCSE's, and achieved good grades across a wide range of subjects, Eloise chose to study Maths and Science subjects for A Levels. (She sometimes remarks that she wishes that she had stuck to essay subjects that can be typed!)
As there is limited opportunity for typing in her A Levels, she was struggling with writing again. This led to the development of the writing grip pen.
The first prototype
I was watching Eloise struggle with writing. In order to hold a pen steadily, she was squeezing the pen, but her fingers and thumb were not strong enough, so her joints over extended and her had became extremely painful. I realised that the key to writing comfortably was to support the web space between her thumb and index finger while she was holding a pen. The first prototype was simply a piece of rolled up cardboard.
It wasn't practical to hold a piece of cardboard when writing, so I set about working out how to fit a support to a pen. I decided to use a standard gel pen with a removable rubber grip as this gives a position where a grip can be attached, It is important for the grip to be as light a possible in order to minimise the effect of the off-centre grip on the weight of the pen. 3D printing allows for the production of the grip in a wide range of sizes in hollow, light weight plastic.
Eloise received the first prototype pen in early 2025 and has been using it for the past year. She has been using it regularly and finds that it saves her hand from suffering with excessive pain.
As this grip promotes a classic "tripod grip" on the pen where the thumb and two fingers are used together to manipulate the pen as the user writes, this grip has the benefit of avoiding the teaching of alternative grips which in turn means that the users hand will get stronger as they write and in time, they are able to use a standard fountain pen - which has long been recognised as the best pen for hypermobile users.
0 comments