50 pre-writing tips

Posted by Talking Matters on 26 September 2014

Handwriting is a skill that is important throughout school. There are lots of fun ways to help preschool children develop the skills they need to be ready for learning handwriting when they begin school.

Handwriting is a complex skill which requires a number of pre-requisite skills including:

Trunk control: A steady trunk is needed as a base for the finely controlled movements of writing. A trunk which is floppy or unstable or one that is too rigid and stiff makes controlling movements difficult.

Shoulder stability: This requires many muscles to work together to hold the shoulder steady so that it can move in slow, controlled movements. Children who find this difficult struggle to produce the fine motor movements required for writing and may try to brace their arm against their side as they work.

Visual motor skills: This skill requires the eye and hand muscles to work together to copy and to form shapes on a page.

Visual perceptual skills: These skills involve the ability of the brain to make sense of information taken in by the eyes. This includes the ability to recognise and remember the shapes of letters and to see differences between letters with similar shapes such as b and d.

Fine motor skills: These skills involve the muscles of the hand and fingers working together to produce the small, controlled movements required for making marks on a page to form letters.

When do children learn handwriting skills?

12-16 Months: Toddlers begin to want to hold pencils or crayons and make scribbles on paper

16-20 Months: Toddlers are able to copy up/down and side to side marks on paper

20-24 Months: Toddlers are able to copy circular scribbles as well as up/down and side to side marks

2-3 Years: Younger preschoolers can copy single lines going up/down and side to side as well as copy a circle with a single line

3-4 Years: Older preschoolers can copy crosses, squares, and diagonal lines

4-5 Years: By the time a child is getting closer to starting school they can copy some letters and numbers and may begin to copy their name.

5-6 Years: In the first year of school children learn to copy most letters, write their name and begin to make letters from memory.

How can I help my child to be ready to develop handwriting skills? "There are lots of fun activities that you can do at home to develop your child's skills while playing or helping out with daily activities. It doesn't need to seem like hard work.

Help your child to develop gross motor skills to help develop trunk stability and shoulder control by:

Playing wheelbarrow races
Jumping on the trampoline
Practicing yoga positions (rocket, tree, ninja)
Swinging themselves on a swing
Gym ball exercises
Walking on stilts
Playing twister
Playng hopscotch
Animal walks (duck, crab, kangaroo)
Climbing on playgrounds

Give your child lots of opportunities to develop fine motor skills by:

Doing craft activities such as painting, cutting and pasting, drawing, collage and stickers
Playing with toys such as building and construction sets, Lego and threading beads
Practicing aiming at a target, such as throwing bean bags or rolled up socks into a container, balls at a target drawn on a wall or through a hoop
Playing games such as barrel of monkeys and jenga
Playing with tweezers, eye droppers and squeeze bottles
Playing with play dough, plasticine, putty and gloop
Cooking together and cutting, rolling, mixing, stiring and pouring
Playing with pipe cleaners and pegs
Playing with sand and water, digging, pouring and building
Threading beads, coloured pasta, cut up straws or cardboards shapes punched with a hole punch.

Provide opportunities for your child to practice paper and pencil activities such as:

Drawing mazes
Doing dot to dot puzzles
Using puzzle books
Searching google images for pictures of favourite characters, printing and colouring them
Playing ipad drawing and tracing apps using a stylus pen
Exploring different writing tools such as wiggle pens and scented textas
Drawing with pencils in a tray filled with flattened plasticine
Drawing on a white board
Drawing with chalk on a chalk board, wall or concrete
Painting with a brush and water on the ground or wall

Provide opportunities for your child to develop visual skills by:

Doing jigsaws
Playing ‘I Spy’ games and search and find books such as ‘Where’s Wally?’
Looking at "spot the difference" pictures
Playing "Guess Who?"
Playing "Connect 4"
Going on treasure hunts
Doing tangram shape puzzles
Sequencing patterns of shapes, toys, beads or coloured objects
Catching and throwing balls
Doing mazes or dot-to-dot puzzles

Develop your child's hand and finger strength by:

Playing with play dough, clay or plasticine with a variety of tools.
Cooking activities involving kneading and mixing, rolling, beating, sprinkling, decorating cakes or biscuits.
Doing hole punching, stapling activities, stamping and stamp textas.
Doing water play involving squeezing sponges, pouring cups and spray bottles. Spray flowers in the garden, fill with paint for a different art experience, knock small plastic animals down. encourage your child to use their index and middle fingers in the trigger.
Playing games involving the use of tongs, teabag squeezers or tweezers. Fish for items such as sponges/ping pong balls in water, or move small objects from container to container (beads, peas, smarties, blocks. Pick up small items like mini marshmallows.
Put pegs on a line or around the top of a container according to colour.
Playing Games such as Trouble, Hungry Hippos and Beetle that invloce lots of firm pressing with fingers.
Scrunching paper such as pages from old magazines. Scrunch paper into a ball and “shoot a hoop” into a washing basket or similar. Start with using two hands to scrunch then try one at a time. Tear paper or magazines and to make a collage
Playing hammering and screwing activities (into soft wood or foam). Screwing/Unscrewing jars or containers. Place fun items inside such as craft materials or small toys. Play with wind up toys or a jack in the box.
Doing constructional activities such as Lego, Duplo, Mecchano, Kinnex or Origami. Playing with elastic bands.

What can I do if I am concerned that my child may have difficulties with handwriting?

Occupational therapists can assess the underlying skills a child needs for handwriting and work out any areas where a child needs extra support. They can then provide activities specifically targeted at the child's needs and make recommendations about any special equipment that may help. For more information about how an occupational therapist can help your child click here.

If you are a local professional who is committed to helping young children develop their full potential in literacy you may be interested in our upcoming workshop based on the work of Diana Rigg of "Promoting Literacy Development". Diana is a special educator and speech pathologist who has developed a range of language and literacy programs and resources for preschool and primary aged children. Talking Matters will be presenting a workshops in Adelaide in October based on her work in developing preliteracy skills for preschool children. Click here to find out more. Parents are welcome at the workshops too!

Our website now has lots of occupational therapy information sheets to download on motor skills, sensory integration and daily living skills. There are also lots of great activity ideas on the Talking Matters Pinterest page.

50 pre-writing tips

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