Breaking down and targeting the different components of handwriting to facilitate good penmanship.

Hi there! I am back again to talk about one of a school based OT’s favorite topics…handwriting! Did you know that handwriting is one of the most common reasons that children get referred to a school based OT?  

While many people see that there is a push for children and adults alike to be able to type and produce written word via technology, the ability to write and copy legibly will always be essential.  

Think about it. Without being able to write their name, will they get credit for their work? Without the ability to accurately copy from a far distance, did that child copy their homework down correctly? Were they able to write down adequate and accurate notes to study from? If their writing isn’t legible and is written all over the page, will they be able to line up their math problem to solve the math problem correctly? Can the child read their own handwriting to be able to write the final draft of their essay? There are so many implications of handwriting challenges for a student in a school environment.  

Within a school setting, handwriting skills are commonly referred to as graphomotor skills. Technically speaking, graphomotor skills describe the physical skills needed to produce writing, coloring, and drawing. Nowadays, schools are expecting children to produce writing at an earlier age; I know some schools where children are expected to be able write opinion pieces in Kindergarten! The push for children to write at an earlier age may have something to do with schools trying to improve their state standardized test scores, and or even trying to compensate for the gaps in education since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Regardless of the cause, enforcing children to write more in an earlier grade can be concerning and troublesome.

There are many skills that children need to master prior to them becoming independent and successful writers.  While we may not have the ability to deter schools from requiring our kids to write earlier, we can do things with our kids to better prepare them for the increased academic demands.

First lets start with identifying some of the skills children need:

1.       Upper body strength, hand strength, and core strength.

2.       The ability to manipulate items in and out of your hands.

3.       The ability to use both hands simultaneously, or bilateral coordination.

4.       Being able to use various types of grasps; picking up and holding items with your hands and your fingers.

5.       Visual motor skills, or hand eye coordination skills.

6.       Being able to sustain attention long enough to work on a task.

7.       The ability to follow directions.

8.       Being able to distinguish directions (up, down, left, right, etc.)

9. The ability to form pre-writing strokes and form basic shapes.

10.    A familiarity with the names of letters, the sounds of letters, and what they look like (in both upper and lower case form).

11.    Motivation, and the ability to persevere even when things are hard.

What can you do to work on these skills?

First, meet your child where they are. In other words, consider their age, and their current abilities. You know your child the best.

Upper body strength, hand strength, and core strength:

o   Developing these muscles can start when your child is a baby. Tummy time is important for many reasons, one being the development of muscles. Find a firm but comfortable surface to lay your baby on their tummy. While supervising them, give them something to look at, reach for, and/ or something that encourages them to explore their surrounding environment via propping their head and upper body up on their hands.

o   As your child gets older, encourage their crawling, sitting up, and playing on a variety of positions on the floor. Distributing weight through their hands (during tummy time, sitting up, and crawling) develops shoulder strength, strengthens and helps create the arches in their hands, provides important sensory information, and much more.

o    After your child can sit unsupported independently, encourage them to play and engage with items slightly out of their immediate reach. OT’s and PT’s call this, reaching out of their base of support. When your child is sitting or kneeling on the floor, to reach items a little past their reach requires them to engage their core to prevent them from falling. Therefore, place a few of items (ie ring stacks, shape sorters, etc) slightly out of their reach.  

o   Encourage your child to open and close their food containers, manipulate playdough, carry items, pull wagons, push toy cars on hard surfaces, put rubber bands on items and take them back off, or even peel tape.

o   Climbing jungle gyms, going up ladders for the slide, pushing the swings.

o   Ripping and crumpling paper. Try ripping, crumpling, and throwing paper away. Or rip and crumple tissue paper and use the tissue paper balls to create a craft.

o   Try coloring, drawing, and writing pre-writing strokes on a vertical surface such as an easel or dry erase board on the wall.

The ability to manipulate items in and out of your hands.

o   Depending on their age, please monitor your child with the following activities for safety. Have your child grab a hand full of small items such as marbles, coins, pebbles, or even cheerios and have them put the items a few at a time into a container. Like depositing coins into a piggy bank.

o   Can your child touch their thumb to each one of their finger tips? Have them practice this skill called opposition.

o   Can your child already hold a writing utensil? Have them practice walking their fingers up and down the pencil/ crayon/ marker. Can they twirl the pencil from having the point of the pencil down, to now having the eraser of the pencil down?

The ability to use both hands simultaneously, or bilateral coordination.

o   When using a writing utensil, children need to be able to hold the paper with one hand, and write/ color/ draw with the other.

o   Have them practice carrying items with two hands. Throw, catch and roll a ball (the younger the child, the bigger the ball). Play with toys that have wheels (ex. cars and trains). Use push toys like a baby stroller, shopping cart, toy vacuum. Ride on toys, see-saws, engaging on playground equipment.

o   Open and close containers, pour liquids, assist in the kitchen, roll dough with a rolling pin, practice cutting food or play dough (with supervision), wash dishes, wash hair, fold or hang laundry, sweep, and mop.

o   Engage in various crafts that require using scissors.

Being able to use various types of grasps; picking up and holding items with your hands and your fingers.

o   There are several types of grasps. Some of them, children become better at as they get older and their hands get stronger. Try not to focus too much on ensuring that your child has a dynamic tripod grasp on a writing utensil (the pencil grip hailed to be one of the most functional grips). More and more studies are showing that a child’s ability to write legibly is not solely dependent on their acquisition of this grasp.

o   If appropriate, and supervised, give your child small finger foods on the surface in front of them (like cheerios on their high chair table).

o   Encourage your child to pick up various sized and shaped toys. Picking up a block, versus a marble, versus a baseball.

o   Try threading with different shaped beads (supervise this activity for safety).

o   Practice manipulating buttons, zippers, and other types of fasteners. Clothing is great for this, but if you want to try this on the go, look into busy board toys (please click here to refer to our toy review section).

o   Encourage peeling stickers off of sticker pages and placing the stickers on another surface. And/ or peeling and sticking tape (try washi, masking, or painters tape).

o   Shape shifters, putting on and taking off clothespins from surfaces, using tongs and tweezers to pick up small items like pom poms.

o   Have your child erase items that you wrote or drew.

o   Remember “Lite brites?” The light up toy with small plastic “bulb’s” that you can use to create pictures. With supervision, create pictures with them.

Visual motor skills, or hand eye coordination skills.

o   Throwing, catching, bouncing and rolling balls all work on these skills. You can also throw and catch with items like small bean bags, stuffed animals and pillows.

o   Play with balloons (Ex. play balloon volleyball).

o   Play sports like tennis, baseball, badminton, mini golf.

o   Thread beads.

o   Put puzzles pieces together.

o   Scavenger hunts with pictures.

o   Copy block designs.

o   Play ‘Simon says’.

o   Engage in mazes and/ or marble courses.

Being able to sustain attention long enough to work on a task.

o   Look at books with your child. If they cannot read yet, read to them, and point out various pictures in the book. Encourage them to turn the pages with you or for you.

o   Do picture searches. The “highlight” book series has great picture searches, or even “Where’s Waldo?”

o   Play “I spy”.

o   Work on coloring small pictures until completion. Don’t have small pictures for your child to color? Draw small shapes for them, and have them color the entire shape.

o   Play with building type toys such as blocks, Legos, and Magnitiles (click to refer to our toy review section for more).

o   Try playing fun board games that are developmentally appropriate.

o   Work on completing puzzles.

The ability to follow directions.

o   Start with simplified short directions. Sit down, stand up, close door. If your child has difficulty, model the action for them, do some of the task for them, assist them with placing your hand over theirs as they do the action.

o   Gradually give your child more steps as they accomplish single step directions. Ex. Close the door and sit down. Stand up and turn the light off.

o   Play games like “Simon says.”

o   Play board games.

o   Give them verbal directions as they work on and complete self care activities.

o   Give them directions while engaging in imaginary play such as through dolls and action figures.

o   Give them direction when playing with building toys such as put the blue block next to the red block.

Being able to distinguish directions (up, down, left, right, etc.)

o   This is so helpful for learning how to write letters and numbers. Fun fact, when writing letters and numbers, the best way, is form in a top down direction.

o   Play games like “hokey pokey,” or dance to the “cha-cha slide.”

o   Show your child the technique that your left hand makes the upper case letter L with their thumb and pointer finger.

o   Cut a sticker in half, and place one half in their left shoe, and one half in their right shoe.

o   Use direction words or prepositions when playing “Simon says.”

o   Use prepositions when having your child copy and create structures out of building toys (such as Legos and blocks).

o   Use direction words when putting puzzles together. Ex. that piece goes above the piece with the blue star on it.

o   Go over direction words while using a map with your child, or a maze.

The ability to form pre-writing strokes and form basic shapes.

o   What are pre-writing strokes? Vertical lines, horizontal lines, a plus, diagonal lines down, diagonal lines, up, and making an X.

o   What are your basic shapes? Circle, square, rectangle, triangle.

o   Model creating these strokes and shapes, diminish using your hand on top of your child’s for support with forming these strokes. (Reminder, start all the strokes and shapes by forming them from a top down direction).

o   Try creating these shapes out of play dough (click here to refer to our toy review section). First roll the playdough into a “worm.” Use the “worm” pieces to create the pre-writing strokes and/or shapes.

o   Take the back of a paint brush and draw the shapes into a piece of playdough that is flat like a pancake. (Drawing in playdough provides resistance which is great sensory input and builds strength).

o   Try creating the pre-writing strokes and shapes out of finger paint, or shaving cream (this provides sensory input too).

o   Try to the make the strokes on a vertical surface like an easel, chalk board, or dry erase board.

o   Use chalk and practice writing on the sidewalk outside.

o   Use simple pictures from a coloring book, google, or even drawing them for your child and have them fill the shape with pre-writing strokes or basic shapes.

o   After getting a basic idea on how to form basic shapes, try making pictures with the shapes. Show your child how to make a simple stick figure (circle head with lines for body parts), or try a picture like a house (triangle roof, square or rectangle rooms, windows and doors).

A familiarity with the names of letters, the sounds of letters, and what they look like (in both upper and lower case form).

o   Sing the alphabet song to and with your child.

o   Read books about the alphabet. My personal favorite is “Chica Chica Boom Boom.”

o   Point out letters in books that they like. See if they can locate letters that you name in the book.

o   Get or make flash cards with the letters on it. Have them practice identifying and memorizing the name of the letters.

o   Have flash cards with the upper and lower case version of the letters and practice matching them together.

o   Engage in putting puzzles together with the alphabet on them.

o   There are various app games for tablets and phones that teach the alphabet.

o   Take a paper plate, cardstock, or cardboard and write the capital letters on the edges of the material. Write the lower case form of the letters on individual clothes pins. Have your child put the corresponding clothes pins on the letters that match.

o   When learning and identifying letters, many children benefit from having a visual of a common word that starts with that letter. Some children also can remember letters better by learning their corresponding sound. Therefore, try finding or creating a visual with the upper case, lower case, image and corresponding word that starts with that letter. Ex. A-a-apple (in word and picture format). Then when you show your child this visual say “A, apple, Ah.” Name the letter, read the word, and say the sound

o   Consistency is key with trying to help a child identify and memorize.

Motivation, and the ability to persevere even when things are hard.

o   This is a big one. For many children, having the desire to learn, and being able to manage their potential frustration is important.

o   Celebrate every small victory when working with your child. Did they remember the letter C today? Did they draw a circle that looks like a circle? Do you feel like they tried harder on a task today than they did yesterday? Give them tons of praise. Not just that you are proud of them, but encourage them to be proud of themselves and their own growth.

o   Explain the importance of acquiring some of the aforementioned skills. Compare their acquisition to activities that they find meaningful. For example, does your child like baseball? Talk to them about how baseball players have to practice hitting the ball, or catching the ball in order to be able to play on the team and win games.

o   Give them breaks when appropriate, and definitely before they get frustrated. As OT’s we love engaging in movement breaks. Movement breaks are great when we see our students getting sleepy, having difficulty attending, or even getting wiggly. Try jumping jacks, stretching, wall push ups, or even dancing.

When your child is in school and starts writing, please make sure that they do some practice at home. Do you remember being in school and writing a word, or letter a bunch of times in a notebook or workbook? There was a reason we did that. OT’s call that block practice. It is the act of taking a difficult letter or word, and practicing the correct formation several times in a row. Repeating this movement pattern is just like going to the gym and performing repetitions of a certain exercise. The more repetitions you do, while keeping the correct formation, the stronger and better you get at the activity. It’s the same thing with letter and number formation.

Stay tuned for part two: Practical ways to improve your child’s handwriting at home. Until then. reach out with questions. See you at our next blog post!