Whenever possible, when writing or drawing at a table, make sure the child is well supported and seated at the right height. If possible:
> Bottom back on the chair
> Feet flat on the floor
> Arms rest comfortably on the table
> Table and chair is comfortable size for your child
> It is important to be seated in a good posture so that they can use their hands freely. Chairs with adjustable height seats, footrests and writing slopes are widely available to encourage your child to be in a good posture.
> Ensure that an appropriate paper position in relation to the body is used (i.e. slants paper to 45° angle to left, if left-handed and right if right-handed. Paper is slightly across midline of body).
> Encourage the child to use their non-dominant hand to steady the paper.
> Involve your child in drawing activities as early as possible.
> Focus on one component of writing at a time so as not to overwhelm the child e.g. once the child has consolidated letters, then move onto spacing.
For a child to be able to write and form letters properly, they need initially to learn how to copy and form simple shapes. Copying the marks or shapes drawn by parent or teacher, is important because it helps a child learn hand eye coordination. Make scribble drawings with the child. After allowing time for the child to make their own marks, then demonstrate making marks such as – | O and get them to copy
It is important for children to be able to draw the 9 pre-writing shapes
These activities have been put together to practice and improve pre-writing skills. They can be carried out in any order and should ideally be practised about three times a week for 15 minutes.
> Encourage large movements when making marks, this encourages use of the muscles of the whole arm and shoulder against gravity and helps to reinforce the ‘‘mental picture’ of the pattern. This is recommended at the early stage of learning letter formation for example draw large shapes in paint on an easel or paper pinned to the wall or draw giant shapes in the air Use thick paintbrushes and buckets of water to paint on outdoor surfaces.
> Talk to the child about what they are doing in order to draw their attention to the movement, for example: a square goes down, across, up, across.
> Maze activities: Start with getting the child to walk on large shapes/lines on the floor (masking tape or chalk) and drive toy cars through mazes, over lines and diagonals. Then encourage drawing between a horizontal or vertical path. Gradually decrease the width of the maze to encourage increased control. These can be done with finger paints, crayons, pencils or paints on a table, at an easel or on paper on the floor or pinned to the wall
> Grade how much help you give the child. Initially you may need to use a hand over hand approach but try to reduce how much physical and verbal help you give the child so they become more independent
> Always emphasise that work should be from ‘Top to Bottom’ and ‘Left to Right’
> Try drawing on sandpaper, patterned wallpaper, in sand or mud in shallow trays
> Draw in lotions, whipped cream, icing sugar, chocolate spread or shaving foam
> Experiment with different colours of chalk, markers, crayons, pens, pencils and paints
> Draw on cakes with coloured icing tubes or draw with cheese spread on bread or crackers, Make shapes with noodles or spaghetti
> Try outdoor activities such as rubbing over different textures e.g. concrete, brick or bark
> Use short regular pencils, small pieces of chalk, felt markers and crayons, this helps the development of finger control
> Start to make a link for children between pre-writing shapes and marks and letters e.g. a circle is the same as an ‘o’
> Practice dot to dots. Encourage the child to stop on each dot. Use arrows to indicate the next dot to improve forward planning and direction
> Make shapes and lines out of rolled up play dough
> Don’t focus too quickly on forming letters, try to make drawing fun!
These activities can prepare your child for drawing and writing activities. They can be carried out in any order and should ideally be practised daily for 5 minutes.
> The child completes activities lying on their tummy and weight bearing through elbows e.g. watching television, reading a book, completing a puzzle.
> Place a firm elastic band around the tips of fingers and thumb. Open and close the elastic band 10 times with each hand.
> Play dough and plasticine – pinching, poking, squeezing.
> Playing with spinning tops, jacks, marbles and card games.
> Posting coins or small objects into jars. Holding all items in your palm and post one by one.
> Picking up items with tongs / clothes pegs / hanging out laundry.
> Threading beads to make jewellery.
> Turning keys.
> Walking fingers. Place a piece of tape along the table. ‘Finger walk’ index and middle fingers (ring and little fingers curled out of the way) along the tape. Change hands.
> Craft activities involving cutting, scrunching, gluing and ripping paper and bending pipe cleaners.
> DIY game – toy tools such as sawing, drilling, hammering, screws and bolts.
> Games involving flicking small objects e.g. flicking paper balls off a table into a ‘goal’.
> Climbing, seesaw, tug of war and swing activities, with the child holding onto ropes.
The following activities need to be carried out as a block of exercises together. They should be worked through before any written work is carried out.
> Start by making stars with both hands by stretching out the fingers wide. Now make a tight fist with both hands and stretch the fingers wide again.
> Put palms together and open and close fingers. While in that position, keep the tips of their fingers together and move their wrists apart. Make sure pressure is being put through the fingertips, pushing each fingertip pair in turn.
> Chair push ups – sit on hands, palm side towards the floor or chair. Lift bottoms off the chair by extending the elbows and pushing down. Repeat this pushing activity at least 10 times.
> Monkey grip – hook fingers together and pull with elbows extended away from the body.
> Wring hands as if it is a really cold day.
> Be creative and encourage the child to think of ideas that involve movements of the hands and fingers.
Pencil grip is only one part of handwriting. In nursery and school, a variety of pencil holds will be seen. Most children develop a pencil hold that is comfortable for them. By the age of nine, most children have developed a pencil grip that is comfortable for them and it can be difficult to change this. The type of pencil grip your child uses is only a problem if it is making writing difficult to read, is not writing at a reasonable speed, or makes their hand sore or tired. If their grasp is impacting on writing, these suggestions should be tried:
> Show your child the correct way to hold their pencil e.g. tripod grip. Help your child place their finger and thumb in the correct finger position.
> If your child has difficulty placing their thumb in the correct position, put a coloured dot on the place where this thumb needs to go to provide a visual reminder.
> Praise your child when they hold their pencil in a good position.
> Use pencil grips to help your child use the thumb, index and middle finger to hold the pencil (Cross guard, ultra, grotto).
> Trial different types and sizes of pencils and pens. Some children work better with roller pens, pens with indents for fingers and others with fountain pens. Trial different pens to establish a preferred option.
> Writing on a chalkboard using very small pieces of chalk encourages a tripod grasp which involves the use of the thumb, index and middle finger.
> Shorten crayons and pencils to 3cms, to encourage a tripod grip.
In order to see as they write and to prevent smudging, the left-hander should hold the pencil/pen at least 3 centimetres from the point. This can be indicated by a small elastic band around the desired area for grip, which can be removed once the child is familiar with the position.This grip, taught in early stages, along with sitting and paper position should eliminate the need for ‘hooked’ hand. If this hasn’t developed, it can be remedied in the following ways:
> Vertical blackboard writing using handwriting patterns. This encourages a full arm movement with greater freedom and a less cramped position.
> Frequent practice of large writing on paper should be provided.
> Using a sloping desk.
> Attention to correct sitting and paper position.
> Use of a thick barrel pen, crayons, felt tip for writing patterns.
> Check that a left-hander is not sitting too close to the right of a right-hander. This will avoid their arms colliding. Some, but not all, left-handers will find writing easier if they can sit on a higher chair. BUT that their feet should still be firmly on the floor.
> When copying a word, numbers, letters, writing patterns etc. a left-hander is helped if these are placed down the right hand side of the page.
> It can be harder for a left-handed writer to write with a very fine nib. Offer pens and pencils with broader and more flexible nibs.
> When using pens, avoid ink which appears very “wet” as this can be easily smudged. Do use ink which flows freely, to help reduce writing pressure which can lead to pain over longer pieces of written work.
> Use softer leaded pencils e.g. 2B rather than HB to reduce writing pressure.
> Try pens and pencils with your child.
> Allow the child to tilt the paper slightly to the right. Around 45° is usually appropriate but allow the child to experiment until they feel comfortable.
> Left-handed writers may require more space at a shared desk or prefer to sit on the left of a shared desk so they do not bump arms with their peer when writing.
When a child first learns to draw letters, it is can be helpful to adopt a multi-sensory approach. These activities have been put together to practice and improve letter formation. They can be carried out in any order and should ideally be practised about three times a week for 15 minutes.
Firstly talk to your child’s school and check what handwriting approach and letter formation they use so that you can support your child at home using the same approach fir example if you child’s school teaches joined letter formation from reception you should use the same at home
> Drawing the shape on different surfaces e.g. whiteboards, blackboards, sandpaper.
> Drawing the shape in different mediums e.g. in a tray of shaving foam or lentils.
> Making the shape in different mediums e.g. out of clay/sticks/beads.
> Drawing the shape really big e.g. in chalk on the playground, on the whiteboard.
> Using clear and consistent verbal cues such as up, down, across, around. Encourage the child to sound these out as they complete the strokes.
> Teach letter formation in letter groups based of similar formation – see handout
> Try letter formation apps for use on tablets which can be very engaging for children.
> Complete dot to dot and mazes of letters.
> Record the letters that your child frequently has difficulties forming and work on these letters daily.
> Sometimes children may have difficulty with reversals and inversions. The letters b and d are commonly found difficult. Especially if the child starts both from the top. To promote correct formation, trace the letters that the child is finding difficult.
> Help your child establish a visual memory or “picture” of each letter, along with the letter name and sound. Children who exhibit reversals frequently confuse reversible letters such as b and d because they have trouble pulling them from memory. Play “Memory” or “Go Fish” using the letters the child tends to reverse. Have them do a letter search by circling all of the letters your child has difficulty with (‘b’s, ‘d’s, etc.) within an article, or have them match pictures to the letters the picture starts with.
>Focus on learning one correct letter or number formation at a time, so that lots of correct repetitions of practice are possible. For instance, have your child write as many words as possible beginning with the letter or number you are working on. Another option is to roll dice and write the letter the same number of times the dice says. This activity is also a great way to work on number identification and addition skills. A third idea is to play Tic-Tac-Toe using the letters or numbers that are challenging for your child
> Some children may have difficulty with not closing their letters: o can look like u, g can look like y and d can look like cl. To assist a line can be drawn through the gap in the letter and it can be reinforced that it must be ‘closed and watertight’.
If a child struggles with letter placement on a line:
> Present lined paper that has two obvious guidelines within which the child must write, i.e. providing an upper and lower visual boundary for letter placement.
> Ask the child to make sure that all letters are about the same size. When they are checking their work, letters that are consistently being written too large or small could be practised separately.
> Recap on letter placement, i.e. which letters rest on the line, drop below the line or start above the line. Identify problem letters and practice using clearly lined paper.
> For younger children – Sky/grass/soil paper can be helpful for this – most letter sit in the grass, some go up into the sky and some have roots in the soil.
If a child is writing with no spaces between their words, ask them to self-correct their work using a red pencil slash to indicate where the spaces should be.
> Give the child a target number of words to fit on the line: LESS than they are currently doing (If the problem is that spaces between words are too big, give the child a target of MORE words to fit on a line).
> Remind them to put a space between each word by doing practice exercises. Ask each child to draw a smiley face/use a small rubber stamp etc. after each word to exaggerate the concept of space. Compare the before and after pieces of writing so that the child can see how much more readable their work is when correctly spaced out.
> Use maths paper and remind them to leave a ‘cube/box’ between words.
> You could also try using a lollipop stick as a spacer and encourage them to decorate the stick before it is used to make the activity more motivating.
> Placing the little finger of the non-writing hand on the page can act as a good indicator of space. This is a habit that could be encouraged whilst this skill is being consolidated in your sessions.
> The action of stopping between words to carry out an activity if repeated regularly will lay down a memory to ‘break’ between words.
Some children struggle to recognise if they are holding their pencil too tighter or loosely or if they are using too much or too little force on pencil to the paper. Sometimes some children use too much pressure – this provides them with additional sensory feedback as to how the pencil is moving on the paper. Below are some examples of activities which will help your child use the right amount of pressure when writing.
> Encourage a hand warm up activity prior to writing. This increases sensory awareness of the hands (see warm up activities).
> Encourage “ghost writing” by writing a word very lightly on the paper and then erasing it without leaving marks.
> Place a piece of carbon paper underneath their work and encourage them that you do not want the writing to come through onto the underlying paper. The child may need to practise this first with writing shapes and then with letters.
> These children typically do not have sufficient finger dexterity or may have a weak grasp. They may also have reduced sensory awareness of their hands.
> Encourage a hand warm up activity prior to writing. This increases sensory awareness of the hands (see warm up activities).
> To stop the pencil or pen from slipping, start with using triangular pencils, larger pencils or crayons and pencil grips over the pencil. You could wrap a rubber band around the pencil about one inch from the point/nib. The child can place their fingers on the rubber band to reduce slippage.
> Encourage them to rub a crayon hard on large paper to cover a picture.
> Activities that develop overall upper limb and shoulder strength are also important. These activities could include: – Weight bearing activities on the arms, such as wheelbarrow walking, animal walks, climbing up a climbing frame or pushing activities (keep the arms straight)
> Writing on a vertical surface, such as the chalkboard, whiteboard or wall for part of the day.
Speed in handwriting is related to age – the rate of greatest increase being between 7 – 9 years. Children reach adult levels of speed at approx. 15 years old. At the age of 13, students should write at 13 words per minute. At the age of 15 – 16 ‘GCSE’ level students should write at about 20 words per minute. There are two reasons for slow writing speed:
> Children with poor mechanics for writing are deterred even further when needing to integrate spelling and composing into the process.
> Children with poor handwriting usually have an unstable motor set and are unable to write automatically and with flexibility.
Endurance is necessary in exam situations or for recording information in a classroom environment. Poor hand writers frequently cannot sustain the legibility of their writing as the length of their assignment/task increases, often causing pain or discomfort in their hands/forearms. As the student tires, letter sizes may become smaller, writing more laboured and letters and words omitted.
If mastery of correct letter formation does not occur during primary years, the speed of writing will be affected. The outcome of decreased speed could therefore affect an individual’s ability to record enough information required during an exam situation. Speed is the last component of handwriting to be worked on and requires a lot of practice on a daily basis. If you are worried about your child’s handwriting speed, it is advised that you speak to school regarding having additional time in exams or using alternative methods of recording their work.
For some older children or young people, it is beneficial to promote alternatives to handwriting. If handwriting problems prevent them achieving their full potential, these alternatives could be considered:
> Use of a ‘dictaphone’ or voice recording device to dictate.
> Using a word processor system – especially for when presentation is required.
> Using diagrams, spider diagrams and mind maps.
> Allow the use of a laptop in the class. A good resource for IT information is Ability Net. Their helpline provides up to date information about suitable IT equipment and suppliers.
> If typing is considered, they would benefit from practicing using a structured typing programme like Typing Club.
> Writing key points only when taking notes.
> Using plans when writing a story – divide into sections and write key points.
> Using answer sheets where the gaps need to be filled in.
> Request photocopied notes where possible.
> Request extra time for children with handwriting difficulties.
> It is important to consider that a child may be concentrating so hard on their writing that they may miss verbal instructions.
> Request that your child sits at the front of the class near the board.
