Teaching Children Handwriting

Handwriting practice is something that falls a little off the radar in the early elementary classroom as the focus shifts to teaching reading. But writing letters gives you a nice opportunity to talk about letters and letter sounds while also working on proper letter formation. Your child’s teachers will thank you!  But more importantly, if your child is confident writing letters, they will have the mental space for the most important aspect of writing: the content!

Here are five tips for supporting handwriting development

Keep handwriting practice short: I’ve found that five minutes is great, and ten minutes is the absolute max. Practice 2-3 letters at a time.

Encourage proper formation: Children tend to build letters from the bottom. You can see this if you see your child write the letter o and it begins at 6 o’clock and goes around instead of starting at 12 o’clock. For your own knowledge of letter formation, this catchy video gives you some guidance on proper letter formation and also the verbal cues that you can use to teach your child proper letter formation. This handout from Handwriting Without Tears provides guidance on the proper formation of each letter. Check out pages 10 & 11 of the .pdf.

Focus on pencil grip: In order for children to write fluently, they have to have a good grip. Grip needs to be explicitly taught when children are first holding pencils and crayons. While it can be remediated in later grades, it is easier to build good habits from the start. Small golf pencils are seriously the best. Using these short pencils forces the child to hold the pencil low. You can encourage the tripod or 3-finger pencil grip, which allows the child to put equal weight on three fingers. Be patient with your child’s fine motor development. Letter practice will help them develop their hand for this sophisticated fine motor task.

This great video will encourage children to use the “flip and grip” trick.

Make it multi-sensory: If your child is having a hard time writing on paper, or if you just want to practice differently, put some sand/sugar/cornmeal in a baking sheet and have your child “write” the letters into the materials on the tray. You can also use a small wet sponge square on a chalkboard and write on the chalkboard using a damp sponge. If you are doing this with very young children, put some shaving cream in a Ziploc and have your child use their finger to make the letter into the shaving cream (adding a little food coloring also makes this exciting).

Choose a logical order: If you are also teaching your child letter sounds/letter names, then focus on writing those letters, too. Using letter cards is a great visual cue.

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