Ergonomic children's pencil holder for Chinese writing

thingiverse

This ergonomic pencil holder is based on a research study to develop an optimal design for students learning to write Chinese characters. Writing Chinese typically uses a different grip compared to western writing.For Western writing, in fact, I find this pencil holder downright uncomfortable! If you write Chinese, however, it's great. My son, who has been learning to write Chinese, says it helps him write better. The research study also reported that students using this pencil holder demonstrated improved penmanship.CustomizingFiles are included in several sizes, for left-handed and right-handed students, covering hand lengths from 140 mm to 188 mm. Hand length is measured from the tip of the middle finger to the first crease of the wrist.To customize your own, load the .scad file into OpenSCAD. In the Customizer window, set the handlen parameter to the length of the hand. The average lengths called out in the study were 139 mm for school children in low grades, 150 mm for mid-grades, and 162 mm for high grades. I'm an average adult with a hand length of 185 mm.Other parameters set the pencil thickness, left-handedness, and tightness around the pencil. The size and handedness (L or R) are engraved on the larger end. The smaller end goes toward the tip of the pencil. ReferenceWang, Ching-yi & Cheng, Zi-Tao. (2023). Design and Assessment of Children's Pencil Holder for Chinese Writing. Sustainability 15(16):12421. DOI 10.3390/su151612421.