KURAM VE UYGULAMADA EGITIM BILIMLERI, no.4, pp.2199-2205, 2011 (SSCI)
This study aimed to examine how first grade students in primary education held and gripped a pencil and their compressive strength using a descriptive research method. The participants of the research comprises first grade students attending a private school in the city center of Ankara (n=79). All of the four different sections in this private school were included in the research. In terms of the variable of holding the pencil, the following results were obtained with regard to the first grade students: Ratio of students keeping their index fingers below the 90 angle is more than half of the students participating in the research, 60% of the students positioned their forearms outward up to an angle of 45 degrees, 80% of the students grasped the pencil with thumb and index finger, 63% of the students positioned their thumbs on the pencil, while half of the students grasped the pencil from the mid-point, 38.5% of the students grasped it from the upper point, the Grip and compressive strengths of the first grade students were also determined in the study. Accordingly, the grip strengths of first grade students were in the range of 4-16.10 (kg) and grip strength varies by gender in favor of the mates. One of the findings obtained in the study is that writing speed varies by gender. Accordingly, females write faster than males.