Are you interested in teaching handwriting to your preschooler? Avoid these common mistakes!
(Disclosure: I received compensation and free product from Go Teach! Handwriting for this post. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.)
I receive many emails from parents asking me for help when teaching their young children to form letters. When should they start? What should they use? What letters should they teach first?
Let’s take a look at five common mistakes to avoid when teaching handwriting … and what to do instead.
Mistakes to avoid when teaching handwriting
Mistake #1: Rushing into it
Children need lots of time exploring with markers, crayons, and other tools before we begin handwriting lessons. There’s no need to rush! My three-year-old is very busy with markers, crayons, scissors, and glue all day long. Mr. Sketch scented markers are a fun favorite!
Don’t get me wrong – we talk about letters a lot, and my Three loved our letter of the week series. But I haven’t attempted any formal handwriting practice with her just yet.
Mistake #2: Neglecting fine motor skills
It’s common for parents to think that the first step is teaching their child to hold a pencil and form letters, but that should come after many playful fine motor activities. These don’t have to be structured. Think simple!
- spraying water from a spray bottle
- stringing Cheerios on a piece of yarn
- punching with a single hole punch
- simple crafts with scissors and glue
Just today, my Ten helped my Three glue colored paper to some cardboard tubes for a pair of binoculars. (Yes, we go through a lot of glue sticks around here!)
Mistake #3: Jumping to worksheets before children are ready
Many early childhood educators feel strongly that no preschoolers should be doing handwriting worksheets. I wouldn’t go quite that far, but I’d definitely agree that most three and four-year-olds should not be using traditional handwriting pages.
Instead, give them a variety of surfaces and materials to write on/in. Here are some of our favorites!
- small dry erase boards with fine-tip, low odor Expo markers (these are our favorites)
- writing in a sand, sugar, or salt tray
- drawing with chalk on the driveway
using markers to draw on bed sheets during quiet time(I wasn’t too happy when my Three tried this one!)
Mistake #4 Teaching the letters in order
I like to start with the letters of my child’s name. (And yes, we do start in all capitals, because they’re easier to write.) Then we move on to the letters in this order – from easiest to hardest.
E, F, H, I, L, T, V, W, X, K, M, N, Y, A, Z, C, O, G, Q, B, D, J, P, U, R, S
I have found that after my children know how to write uppercase letters, they are ready to learn to write lowercase letters in any order. But if you want to have a more structured approach, start with letters that include all straight lines (such as t, i, etc.), move on to letters with slanted lines (v, k, x, etc.) and then conclude with letters that have curved lines or a combination of straight and curved lines (a, b, r, s, etc.).
Mistake #5: Neglecting proper letter formation
I prefer the Zaner Bloser handwriting style. In fact, that style has been the inspiration for all of the handwriting pages you can find on my site. It’s a simple block style that works well for young writers. I appreciate the emphasis of starting at the top when forming letters.
My Letters of All Sizes handwriting pages are great for young writers. Have your child start at the dot to form each letter inside the bubble. Your child can do just the large letters or – if (s)he is ready – all the letters on the page. I should note that my Three was happy to model this page for you, but I don’t plan to focus on these until she’s four or five years old.
A tip: Laminate the pages and store them in a 3-ring-binder for multiple use. We like the black Expo markers (they erase the best from laminate) so that we can use the pages again and again.
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Deanna Schaeffer
Teaching a child all Caps first is a mistake. I have had so many students that enter Kindergarten writing their name in all caps. It is the hardest habit to break. A parent can show their child this is how you write you name without explain the difference between upper and lowercase letters.
Anna Geiger
Thanks for sharing your opinion, Deanna!
Ms. Shiro
I could ‘t agree more with you Deanna Schaeffer
Rose McDonough
Retired teacher caring for teacher’s preschoolers here: My added suggestions- we use A LOT of shaving cream foam to draw, and try letters (always top to bottom, like gravity and clockwise) and the shaving cream disappears about the same time as their attention span. We play matching games we six letters and as they turn a letter over I say the name AND sound it makes. We also play ‘go fish’ using letters and again, name and sound. For the kids I have had I use 2×2 cardstock squares and write a letter of their name (capital then lowercase) on each square. I place them in a business envelope with their names written nearly as large across the envelope. Before snack, they dump out the letters and put in order to ‘spell’ their name. The biggest thrill is when a toddler sees the envelope with their name and yells “That’s MY name!” Children are sponges, immerse them in water!
Tere
Thank you so much for this!
My son, who is left handed btw, thanks also for the left handed worksheets, has been progressively learning to write. He has needed tons of fine-motor skill support of course, this is a part that we had neglected until recently and you really do see a change!
Before I became a parent I thought that learning to write was fast, and that kids learned completely phrases within months… boy was I wrong!
Teaching our son to write has been a rewarding process, and we’ve all learned a lot from it!
senthilkumar
super super.. great appluase for your suggestions.
Be safe.. Fight corona.. Take care mam.
Colleen
Great basic hints!
I wonder about this list as “easiest to hardest” to form. E is easier than F? O is harder than K and X? U (smiley face) is one of the hardest letters? Am interested in your rationale.
E, F, H, I, L, T, V, W, X, K, M, N, Y, A, Z, C, O, G, Q, B, D, J, P, U, R
Anna G
The list is a suggestion and not hard and fast. 🙂 The list may be ready for an update!
Janice Alexander
I’m a retired teacher and coincidentally I’m getting materials ready for a rescue operation for my great-granddaughter (age 5) whose mum wouldn’t heed my advice when she started to teach her how to write (age 2 😖) All the don’ts she did. Now the wee one is at school her bad habits are glaringly obvious.
When teaching lower case letters I like to do them in family groups. I begin with the ones that are based on the letter ‘c’. Having got a proper grasp of this the others simply fall into place. Poor Evie! They’re only here in Scotland for a week and her mum wants us to do 2 hours daily. Don’t worry though. We’ll have FUN!!!
Whoops, sorry! I meant we’ll have fun!!! 😄
Heather Groth, Customer Support
I’m sure you and Evie will create special memories with all the fun activities you do together while she’s there! Grandparent time is so special!
Monica Sarmiento
Straight letters are the easier, (l,t,), then round letters, starimg with the c (o,d,b,g), the hardest are the ones that have diagonal lines.
I am a Special Ed teacher and author of a handwriting based on fine motor development. Kids learn the letters based on learned movements. I hope this helps.
My name is Monica Sarmiento, E.th
Shirley Patterson
I am a retired K-12 teacher and this upsets me. Never should preschoolers do anything but PLAY! The outside classroom is a hub of learning. If a child expresses interest in writing Then go ahead but do not please make reading and writing the goal. Reading TO children is fantastic and idea-creating. These are not skills that need to be taught until they are good and ready. Doing it prematurely just teaches some kids that they have failed. Get away from these and make your classroom a cheerful and happy place. Don’t forget that learning is a life long skill and they MUST enjoy it. My Kindergarten, Grade 1,2,3 in a family grouped setting learned every skill within a farm ( built by my husband!) math skills, reading, language arts, science, etc mostly hands on learning. Bank accounts, money handling, creative writing, selling eggs daily, cleaning housing, fund raising for food etc. Those children who I taught, many still write to me because they never forgot their 4 years of fun! I shall NEVER EVER forgot these happy and enjoyable moments of learning. Please don’t make early learning via reading and writing the gold standard for a guaranteed university placement. There are so many types of intelligence and we are all different. My ADHD son had a dismal education and we were constantly reminded that “he was lazy and would not amount to very much”. He is now 35 and has an extremely successful business with a staff who admire his energy, interests and dedication to his employees.
Abri
♥️ I Love this so much!!
Alicia
I agree but sadly the DOE starts pushing tests on kids at a time they should be learning through play. The kindergarten of today is not the one I experienced and Fröbel would be clutching his chest if he was around to see what kindergarten has become.
Brina
Thanks for the great tips, they will definitely help!
Also an idea for your #3. I use a shower curtain from the dollar store. That away you can wipe clean clean when your done!
tania
I agree with starting with uppercase, but would you happen to have any of the worsheets that include lowercase for older kids?
Thanks!
Kate Dowling
Hi Tania! This is Kate, Anna’s assistant. Yes, Anna has all her handwriting pages in both uppercase and lowercase. Here are all the free handwriting pages: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/teaching-handwriting-2/
Sihem
Merci vraiment c’est très utile pour moi ce que vous avez rédigé .moi comme éducatrice j’oublie la motricité fine des enfants, car j’ai deux enfants de trois ans et les autres c’est les quatre ans.
Kristi
Thank you for this information. One thing I would disagree with is teaching the slanted line letters–Z, M– before the circle letters–O, C. Developmentally, kids make circles easier than slanted lines. I use the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum for pre-K. Otherwise, I think you are spot on!
Anna G
That’s another good way to approach it! 🙂
Susan
I also use pencil grips when we start with pencils. The kind that have a place for your thumb, a place for your forefinger and the pencil rests on the other fingers . It is also hood to start with triangle shaped crayons. I have seen so many kids come in just holding the pencil in a grasp. These two things really help!
Susan Park
Several comments–
I am blanking on the diagnostic program we used many years ago, but in general, making circles was a shape that the average child made about 2.5 years old. The vertical line was next at 3 and horizontal shortly after. The diagonal lines, needed for the capital A were 4 and 4.5 year old abilities. This is why most 3 year olds letters A are rather crooked with one pointing almost straight down and the other heading off to the side. An X was almost a 5 year old shape to copy. Obviously we have children working on those letters earlier, but should we?
I also found how critical learning to crawl was. Children who didn’t crawl enough, had difficulty learning to cross their mid-line. Using big paper (sheets of newspaper on the wall) and letting the child paint a line from one corner to another would show you if the child had difficulty crossing the mid-line by ending up more towards the bottom middle rather than the opposite corner. Try painting an X.
We lived overseas for the better part of 30 years. One of those countries, Peru, taught cursive from the beginning rather than print/block letters. Having been raised in the states, I admit, I was skeptical, but the children did fine. As the Spanish language is phonetic, they started with 5 vowels before the consonants.
And last, activities we used to help develop fine motor strength were ripping paper and then learning to rip on lines. It’s great if you can get a discarded wallpaper book from a paint store. The kids love the colors and textures. Plus it is more difficult to tear than regular paper.
Another is a shoebox with clothes pins where the child clips them around the edge to make a “cage” for a stuffed animal.
Anna G
Thanks for sharing your rich perspective, Susan!
Christine
As a teacher of 4 and 5 year olds, I am finding that children are coming to me with too little time with crayons and paper. Yes, we all love markers and the dry erase boards are eco-friendly in a way but they don’t have the resistance of crayons. This leads to children coming in unable to create easily visible marks with a crayon on paper and I do believe that crayons are a better utensil as children begin to write since they can’t obsess over erasing less than perfect marks and crayons don’t seem to “slide” out of control the way markers and white boards do with our youngest “writers”.
Long and short: Mix it up and don’t leave out crayons. 🙂
Anna G
Thanks so much for your perspective, Christine! I hadn’t thought of it this way.
Alice
Recommendations from a retired occupational therapist with 39 years of experience in education, in support of the comments by Christine regarding the early use of markers vs the use of crayons and pencils/colored pencils
* Most children enjoy the ease of making marks with markers and love the intense colors. When markers are the first writing tools introduced, children often choose to only use markers, missing out on the advantages of crayons, pencils and chalk. Chalk is excellent for exploring with the concept of blending colors.
* Markers are more likely to leave unwanted, difficult to remove color on other surfaces, i.e., skin, furniture, clothing, toys. This is especially true with younger children who have less refined fine motor control.
* Crayons, pencils and chalk require more pressure to make a mark compared to markers. The use of greater pressure increases proprioceptive input to joints, providing needed feedback that facilitates improved fine motor control. Using crayons, pencils or chalk to color/trace/write on sandpaper or other textured surfaces, such as textured paper increases proprioceptive feedback. Fine to medium grit sandpaper can be secured under paper by using a clipboard. Excessively coarse textures may interfere with accuracy, but can be used to intensify proprioceptive feedback when larger outlines.
* Following the Handwriting Without Tears program encourages the development of mature pencil grasp pattern and proper and efficient formation of letters.
* Color changing markers are effective with older children to increase the accuracy of tracing skills. The “magic” changing colors improve sustained visual attention. Children who are impulsive and write very quickly, often slow down and trace more accurately. Many children enjoy the activity for longer periods (and, therefore, willingly practice!) as they explore different color combinations. I strongly prefer the color changing marker sets that use a single “magic” marker that is colorless on white paper until it accurately follows the path of a colored marker. Children tend to notice more quickly when the color change suddenly stops rather than changing to a different color once when the tracing becomes inaccurate.
Muthia Juliahibi
I love the idea of not teaching letter writing in order.its so hard for the kids esp the first one being a and it being very hard to shape.
Anna G
I’m glad this helps you, Muthia!
Debbie Bernal
I’ve been teaching early childhood a long time…. now I’m retired from public school and teach at a preschool. Many programs are out in the writing world…. so be flexible. Yes straight lines are easier to write than curved lines. I have found it’s hard to re-learn how to write their name if one writes with capitals only. I like to say “ that’s one way to write your name, this is another”. Many of our students go to Montessori, they have kids write cursive… so encourage all attempts. Writing your own name or a friends name is of high interest. Words like mom, dad, are also high interest. For 3 year olds we use berry haulers to “pinch” Pom poms, noodles, whatever’s fun to get. Play doh can strengthen finger muscles. For cutting we put wrapping paper taped to the wall or easel and kids just cut up… also a beanie baby under the arm pit forces the holding of scissors with thumbs up. Put away tech devices and let kids touch, feel and play!
Anna G
Thank you for all your ideas, Debbie! 🙂
Melissa
I have been teaching my 3 year old cousin whom I babysit for daily, to write his name. I love the idea of laminating the pages. I have been making his name (several times a day) in block letters with a Sharpie,then he will write inside of it with a pencil or crayon.
Anna G
That sounds great, Melissa! 🙂
Kate
Hi, I hope you still get to read this. I have a concern to item #5. My 3yo has started to write on his own (1, crooked 2, 3, A, M, x, and some shapes and scribbles). I did not teach him how to write so he does it his own way (i.e., A starts at the bottom left). I’m wondering if I should correct him at this stage. He does not go to school yet, we do not exactly homeschool (we’re both impatient) but we do some activities that I think are appropriate for his age and interests. Thank you! 🙂
Anna G
Hi Kate! I personally would not be too concerned about that yet. All my kids started writing on their own, too, and they didn’t form their letters correctly. As they started holding their pencils correctly (or close to correctly) and demonstrated the patience to learn, we started doing my letters of all sizes handwriting pages. At that time I showed them how to form letters correctly. Sometimes they carried this into their own writing. Sometimes they didn’t. 😉
Alice
Also, do not teach kids to write their names in all capitals. It is a hard skill to unteach. Always teach a capital only at the beginning and lowercase letters there after.
Pat
I agree with you. I taught mostly early childhood for over 30 years. Children can learn to write the lowercase letters as easily as the uppercase letters. It can be very hard to transition over I think it’s adults that think the capital letters are “easier.. Putting a dot where a child is to start a letter helps. Left handed children who use a typical grasp will cross letters right to left. Its easier and they can se the formation of the letter…T,t, X,xA,H,I,J. Some children hook and can form the letters like a right hander. I also agree with with the comment who said to start children with crayons and pencils. Markers can come later. It’s like trying to learn the piano if you’ve only played on a keyboard. and of course all the fine motor skills mentioned to build hand/finger strength are very important.
Nancy
There is a language development program here in Texas with a really good handwriting component that I firmly believe gets overlooked as a mere bilingual program. The Esperanza program is a language development program created by Dr. Elsa Cardenas-Hagan that includes with it, a simple four-step approach to teaching each lower case letter, and includes gross-motor exercise with each one. I’ve just started my 26th year of teaching, with 20 of those years spent in Prekindergarten, and I have made some mistakes along the way. Dr. Cardenas-Hagan’s approach is not one of them. Although our school no longer offers a bilingual program, nor any of its enrichment programs, I still employ the Esperanza approach because it works! And I also agree with the comments made about teaching lower case letters first—it truly is 95% of what they read and write, and it has always made for smoother transition to reading those first library books.
Mary
Hello. As an Occasional Therapist that works in preschool, teachs handwriting, and has for 20 years, I enjoyed your blog post. I’d like to add these tips: 1.markers can wait! Preschool hands really need to use writing utensils that will really develop their hand arches and muscles – chalk is the best followed by small 1” sized crayons to encourage a proper grasp. Use a pointer finger in salt, sand, flour etc… before using a marker. Markers provide the least amount of feedback to a developing hand…
2. Use vertical surfaces to discourage bottom up writing and drawing.
3. Parents need to talk about letters a LOT, but be sure your child can accurately copy shapes before insisting they try to write letters. Thanks!
Anna G
Thank you very much or this helpful information, Mary! I’ll remember it when people email me asking for advice.
Randi
I see you have a lefty?! I do as well! What are some good sources you have used to help Little? Anything can help thanks!!
Anna G
It’s crazy, but four of our six kids are lefties! I follow the tips here: http://mamaot.com/tips-for-teaching-lefties-to-write/
k ward
When a child is learning to write left handed have them turn the piece of paper they’re writing sideways to the left. They’ll not only be able to read what they’re writing they won’t have pencil or pen smears on their paper or hands.
Anna G
Yes, I do this with my kids who are lefties.
Makayla
So my two year old is showing signs of being left handed. He started grabbing things with his left hand when he was about 15 months old and even now he holds his spoon and other things with his left hand. I worry about teaching him handwrittijg because I am very right handed and can’t make more than a scribble with my left. I was just wondering if you have advice on how to teach a lefty.
Anna G
Four of my six kids are lefties, Makayla! I follow the tips here: http://mamaot.com/tips-for-teaching-lefties-to-write/
Jodi Grossman
As an occupational therapist with many years of experience, I appreciate your post. However I would like to add a few points.
1. From a visual perceptual/motor point of view, children do not have sufficient eye teaming/convergence/divergence until about 7 years old. Having them do worksheets and other handwriting activities is counter productive. More gross activities such as finger painting, easel work, chalkboard or side-walk chalk activities are much more efficient.
2. Handwriting Without Tears is a much more developmentally based program than Zaner-Bloser.
3. Handwriting is a very complex motor and visual task. It begins in infancy. Babies need to be put to sleep on their backs, but they must have tummy-time when awake and when supervised. Tummy time develops shoulder girdle stability and core stability which are needed for good fine motor skills; and tummy time develops convergence and divergence of the eyes.
4. Putting writing utensils in a child’s hand develops poor grasp habits that are very difficult to change. Try to wait as long as possible to have children write with utensils. Instead use sensory modalities such as play do, shaving cream, finger paint, tear paper and use pieces to fill in or cover letters, stickers, crumpled paper, etc.
Anna G
Thanks for your feedback! I have to say though, that in today’s educational environment (at least in America), kids will be expected to do pencil work and handwriting before age 7 – this may not be ideal, but it IS the reality – so we need to figure out how to show them how to do this properly while also incorporating lots of sensory modalities, as you mentioned.
Dennis Saller
In my 20 years as a school psych focusing a lot on handwriting skills and collecting data from large summer school interventions, I have not seen very much success with Handwriting without Tears. It is ok for the very few kids with more severe lower level fine motor skills.
Handwriting has been proven to be mostly a cognitive skill involving the orthographic (or visual) imaging of letters and planning of finger movements, not so much fine-motor.
The best program by far that I have seen effective is the PAL Handwriting program by Virginia Berninger. I have seen children’s handprint legibility and automaticity improve dramatically after about twelve lessons, even after three or so years of OT focusing on fine-motor.
Anna G
Thanks so much for that recommendation, Dennis! It’s always good to have different options to explore.
Patty
I recently discovered white board crayons. They take a little more muscle (good thing for strength building) but come completely off, no ghost images or stains.
Anna G
Those sound great, Patty – thanks for the tip!
Rebecca F
Where would the letters J and V fall in your list?
Anna G
Sorry about that! The list should look like this: E, F, H, I, L, T, V, W, X, K, M, N, Y, A, Z, C, O, G, Q, B, D, J, P, U, R, S
oldhouseintheshires
This is a great post. Interestingly here in the UK we discourage teaching children to write in Capitals (apart from the first letter of their name) when they start to write. We teach lower case so that they can see the shape and associate it with its sound (so teach phonics alongside). I can’t see which would work best though tbh as Upper case are easier to scribe. In one school I worked in we taught cursive from day one and that was amazing! Untidy at first but most were joining their handwriting by year 1 (turning 6). It was incredible in fact. I agree about strengthening hands, fingers, arms and shoulders. I call these activities funky fingers and the children really look forward to them!
I love your site and am using it with a little girl who I am tutoring in the summer who has dyslexia. The phonics games are such fun. Thank you.
Anna G
Thank you for weighing in about how you do things in the UK! There are definitely many different approaches to teaching handwriting, and no one perfect method. I’m so glad you’re finding resources on my site to use with the little girl you tutor!
Lisa
When teaching a child to write I think, from 20+years of teaching experience, that the first letters a child should learn to write are those in their name. An upper case for their initial and the rest lower case. Teaching a child to write their letters out of context and relevance before a child is ready to learn to read and write has not been proven to assist them later. Breaking children of the habit of using random capitals is difficult.
Cheri
What cursive program did your school use?
Heather Groth, Customer Support
Hi Cheri! Anna didn’t teach cursive in the classroom because she was teaching grades 1-2, but at least one of the schools that she was working at used Zaner-Bloser.
sue
Hi…as a kindergarten teacher, I would encourage working with lowercase letters on a child’s name. Capitals may be easier to form but lowercase letters will ease the transition in school to the writing they need to do and the words they see in books.
Anna G
Personally I think children should be able to write their name in capital and lowercase when they start kindergarten, but all caps is a good first step before they’re ready to learn the proper form. It probably depends on how old a child is when first learning to form his/her name, as that will have an effect on what they’re ready to do, developmentally.
Sarah
I’m with Sue on this. Kids are very reluctant to switch to lowercase once the habit of uppercase has been mastered. We use lowercase letters about 95% of the time in writing. In my class both are introduced and practiced but we also learn when it is appropriate to use each.
Michelle
I used the zoo-phonics program at my preschool and taught the kids to write lowercase letters and they did. I found when parents taught them all uppercase to spell their names they always did it that way and had a tough time changing. I had their names everywhere in the classroom so they could do it correctly too.
Debra Kelly
I only teach kids at the beginning lowercase in their names. We work on names all year long, but as we work on letters we start with only capitals first. They do trace their names with the capital and the rest lowercase. I talk about the importance of capitals. I teach preschool now, but I use to teach Kindergarten. I didn’t think it was that difficult to transition capitals to lowercase. Afterall, I always got several kids who could not even hold a pencil.
Jaime
Great article! One question: Why do you view E as easier than, say, I or L?
Thanks in advance!
Anna G
I would say they’re about the same, but one of them had to come first. 🙂 It doesn’t really make a difference.
Tina
Here are a couple of other fun/different ways to learn the letters:
*I write the letters with dry erase markers, and the student erases them in proper formation.
*for letters that are particularly difficult for a student, I will write them on paper with a yellow highlighter, and have them trace them in pencil. It helps build confidence by having a guide that they can write over. Something a little different than traditional dotted line examples.
Anna G
These are wonderful, Tina! Thank you!
Diane
If you use a blue highlighter over the yellow it will turn the letter green
Janya
This is a great article and a fresh reminder as I begin another year teaching kindergarten. I always try to focus on fine motor skills at the beginning of the year (as well as all year long). If I may, I would suggest using a green dot at the top/starting point. I have found that since kids know green means go and red means stop, it is a good practice to out green at the start of the letter formation and red at the end.
Anna G
Thanks for that tip, Janya!
Chrissy
Handwriting without Tears is a great writing program. And teaching proper grip is very important too! Pinch and flip is what we say in preschool. Straight lined letters are the easiest to learn first. And using terms like big line, little line, big curve, little curve help well.
If only these strategies were using on my boyfriend, then I would cringe every time I see him write haha!
Anna G
Thanks for your teaching tips, Chrissy! It’s so hard when we miss that window of teaching proper pencil grip… I can think of many former students in the intermediate grades who were past the point of correction. Made me cringe too, lol!
bluesflutterby
Can also place pages in page protectors, if planning on using dry erase markers or crayons. Worked really well for all of my kids, and they had fun erasing too!
Anna G
Yes, that’s a great way to save printer ink!
Debra Kelly
We alternate fine motor activities while kids wait to wash hands and get drinks after recess. Some days it is practicing their names with laminated sheets, other days its pencil and paper or it could be using playdough and filling in the letter of the day. Preschool. I also have used clothespins that have letters on them and they clip on letters in a printed strip on their name (this was almost impossible for them at the beginning. They couldn’t squeeze them enough to open them up). Lacing is available, but many kids choose not to do this.
Heather Groth, Customer Support
Great ideas, Debra! I love that you are finding purposeful ways to use the time when students would otherwise be waiting around! Keep up the great work!
Debra Kelly
Laminate them will make erasing even easier. Amazon $20 laminator and the mid thickness sheets are my best friends.
Jan
The last sentence should read the correct grasp not incorrect. My apologies.
HappyTeacher
Educated and experienced preschool teacher here. They should be using correct pincer grasp by age 3-4 depending on how much practise they are getting. Using very short crayons or pencils is an easy way for them to get it 🙂
Side note: when teaching letters it is more beneficial to teach the phonetic sound of the letter vs. Letter names. Make sure they know those alphabet sounds and reading will come much easier! Great blog!
Raechel Corcetta
YES totally agree… I was astonished to hear that I seemed to be the only one insisting my child sound the letters he was writing and reading, not just naming, during the morning writing session in K and PP!
He now sits far above the rest of his class in his spelling, reading and comprehension (Yr 1.) I am sure this is related.
Ruth
I was amazed observing a preschool class in Kenya. The kids were chanting the sounds of the letters, not the names. It was an eye opener as an educator and a parent. It made sense yet I haven’t seen it practiced in our schools here. I’m currently subbing in many classes. I ?Kinder classes.
Jan
From a retired educators’s viewpoint please encourage parents to teach their children to hold a pencil (the pincer grasp between thumb and pointer finger with the 2nd finger resting behind the first, giving support) correctly. The pencil should be resting in the curve between the thumb and first finger. It is very difficult to change incorrect pencil grasp once children are school age. The incorrect grasp promotes less stress on little hands and the child is able to see what they are printing.
Anna G
I definitely agree on teaching children the proper pencil grasp, but the hard thing is knowing when to insist on it; I think it’s easy to force it too soon, before children are developmentally ready. A tough call for sure!
Kate
Love the link to the left-handed worksheets. I am starting those tomorrow with my 4-year-old. It definitely makes sense when I try them myself. It’s more natural to use a different stroke order with the left hand.
Anna G
Yes, they do make a lot of sense! I hadn’t really thought to teach handwriting to my older lefties using this method, but I notice that my left handed kiddos do this method on their own, instinctively. I’ll focus more on it with the younger two.
Deebi27
Thank so much Anna, these are so valuable! Thankfully schools are still teaching printing, however, the handwriting is going out like the Dick & Jane books. As parents and grandparents remember, this is very valuable. It seems to be unimportant in the scheme of daily teaching anymore. If you have info on that I would greatly appreciate that information as well. Have a great weekend!
Anna G
I agree that handwriting is important, but I also think that today’s teachers have SO much on their plates, that something has to be pushed to the back burner. I think it’s about balance – personally I’d recommend handwriting practice for about 10 minutes three times a week. More than that is really going to take away from necessary reading and writing activities. It can be helpful for parents to squeeze in handwriting practice by making it like a game. I love these, for example!
http://thisreadingmama.com/20-grid-handwriting-worksheets/
Hilary
I love your worksheets. I especially love how you explain the reason behind the design. These are not cookie-cutter worksheets. I can tell you’ve put a lot of time and thought into their design, and I love the personal connection you make by including your own experiences with your kids.
I happened to click on the link for the left-handed handwriting worksheets. I never would have thought about finding a design for left-handed learners. Your explanation of the reason behind the design made so much sense. I wish our public school system would catch up to your methods instead of trying to fit everyone in a box. Thank you.
Anna G
Thank you so much for your kind words, Hilary! I should note that the left-handed worksheets were created by my blogging friend Becky of This Reading Mama. I agree that they’re very smart! Especially since we have four lefties in our house … 🙂
Natalie Kukard
Lovely post, thank you. It would he great if you add the importance of gross motor coordination aswell. We recently discovered that my 6yr old is struggling with writing. Her fine motor skills are perfect and like yours goes through markers and glue sticks at speed of light. And even though I’ve always kept an eye on her gross motor development I missed to ensure that her shoulders and arms remain strong. She can do monkey bars and is very athletic and swims in a little squad with 9yr olds as she is too strong for her own age group. But there was 1thing we missed. Ensuring she has proper weight bearing development in her shoulders and arms. A quick test was doing a wheelbarrow walk. She couldn’t do it ? so we started a daily ritual to do some wheelbarrow walking, and within 2 weeks she has gone from 3 steps to doing 20meters at once. Her teacher has already commented on her improved posture and her writing has improved. Something so seemingly small has made a huge difference for my little one
Deebi27
Thanks for your FYI Natalie Kukard, I will pass on to both my kids for the development of my grandkids!
Anna G
This is wonderful advice, Natalie – thank you!
Natalie
Just a quick update. It has been 3weeks since we started with the wheel barrow walking. She is now strong enough to pull herself into a handstand position, bending only at the hip so that I can hold her legs. She does 20m in one go of “handstand walking”. Aside from the posture and writing improvement she has become way too strong for her swim quad so we are taking a break from swim training and focussing on some other interests. Who knew that this little thing would have such a huge impact
*Natalie
Anna G
Wow – that’s inspiring!
ester
Wheel barrow walking, is that where you hold their feet and they walk with their hands?
Anna G
Yes.
Pam
My 5th grader son likely has dysgraphia, but is not the type caused by problems with fine motor skills. We’ve been seeing an OT for about a month and he wasn’t progressing as fast as hoped, so they did the wheelbarrow test two days ago and guess what? I never realized he had trouble with his gross motor skills aside from his aversion to organized sports. We have some monkey bar and therapy putty work ahead 🙂 It’s encouraging to hear it helped your girl.
Morgan
Thanks for the article. I nerves thought of using spray bottles to strengthen my students little hands.
Anna G
Yes, there are so many great ways to strengthen fine motor skills! You might enjoy this post from Pre-K pages:
http://www.pre-kpages.com/handwriting/
Judy
If you live where it snows, put colored water in spray bottles and “paint” the snow. My kids loved it!
Julie
I love all your tips except teaching all caps. We also want children to learn to read and books are not all caps!
Jennifer
100% agree! I find this especially important when teaching young children to write their name. I teach my pre-K children to write their name with 1st letter uppercase and lowercase for the rest. As long as they are trying and not getting frustrated, I prefer it takes them all year to write their name rather than learn to write it with all uppercase and need to be relearn when they go to K. I’ve talked to Kindergarten teachers who say for some children it’s difficult for them to start writing their name correctly when they learn to write in all caps.
Deb
Absolutely agree on the Lowercase vs Capital letters.
Other points are brilliant. Thank you.
Emily
I agree. Teach lowercase first and show the child that names begin with capital letter.
Lowercase letters are more difficult to master but teaching them this way helps with their reading skills.
A. Lane
Often a child who has only been taught uppercase letters does not recognize their name when they enter kindergarten – can’t find their hook, bins or lunch cubbies ect. Teach like we read!
Anna G
I didn’t say ONLY teach uppercase letters; I suggested teaching them first. But to each his own.
Mel
I’m an OT and completely agree with teaching uppercase first. There is no reason why a child who is learning to print in uppercase cannot still learn to recognize lowercase letters, including in their name, and in all other settings. It’s not about reading, here. It’s about a motor skill – two seperate things. Yes, one day, they will be integrated, but in the beginning they are separate. In my experience children who are taught only in lower case from a young, pre-K age, are forming their letters incorrectly, and by the time they reach kindergarten have bad habits like starting from the bottom, adding extra lines, forming circles counterclockwise, etc. and these bad habits hinder efficiency. In all my years I can’t even think of a child who learned their name in capitals, and had a truly hard time transitioning to lower case as they learned lowercase letters (except for those who had other underlying learning disabilities – and in truth the problem was that they couldn’t recognize most of the alphabet in lower OR uppercase)
Rose Painter
I agree with you. I homeschooled our four, ages now are 32, 30, 25, 24.Now I am educating two of my three granddaughters. Ages 3 and 1. I believe children start learning from birth, and can learn from play fabulously. With my granddaughters, I started with sign-language letters. When the three year old has trouble recognizing upper or lower case letters, she recognizes the signs. We started signing many words, not only the most learned; eat, milk, more, please, thank you, etc.
Vera
I am an OT who has been working with preschoolers for over 25 years. Teaching capital letters is developmentally the correct order and I can also say from my experience that children who do this form letters correctly later on. It’s about visual motor skills not reading. They will also form lower case letters correctly after they learn the capital letters 1st.
BTW great job on the 5 mistakes to avoid article!
Angela
Apparently your post grabbed the attention of the OTs out there! Another occupational therapist here. Having worked in the public schools for over 20 years as an OT, I also fully support and recommend upper case letters first. As Mel said, we are talking about two different things here. From a motor and visual motor standpoint, capitals are more appropriate to begin with. All of the capitals take up the same space (all the way to the top and stop at the bottom line) and are made up of 4 basic strokes (big line, little line, big curve, and a little curve…from the Handwriting Without Tears program). This makes capital letters MUCH easier to learn to write. Lower case letters are all over the place and have more strokes to learn. I have to admit, I was a little hesitant when I clicked on your link. But I was pleasantly surprised to see such good advice. Work on fine motor skills….teach letter formations…it will all come together beautifully (and functionally) in the end. 🙂
Angela
I would also add to the earlier grade teachers, we OTs see these kids well into the future. Oftentimes, when kids begin writing too early, they learn inefficient grasp patterns and formations. While, this may seem fine look ok in early grades, it can cause big problems later on. As they get older and writing demands increase something has to give. Either they can keep up the pace or legibility goes downhill. Unfortunately at that point, the grasp patterns and formations are so much a habit that they are almost impossible to change without extreme intrinsic motivation and dedication. Better to start them off when they are more developmentally ready rather than starting before they are ready and then trying to fix this later on. I also read another comment about writing being more cognitive than fine motor. I don’t know if I would go so far as to say that, but it is important to remember that writing is actually a pretty complex task that involves many different skills areas. It’s not just one area that affects how children learn to write.
Arden
I have a number of letters that I wrote to my dad when he was overseas in the Navy, and they’re wonderful evidence of my own development. The earliest letters, starting at 3 years, 11 months, are entirely in capitals. Lowercase letters start appearing at 4 years, 4 months, but even after that, I still had a marked preference for uppercase. From what my family tells me, I don’t seem to have had any difficulty *reading* lowercase as a preschooler, but I maintained my preference for writing in all caps until the habit was drummed out of me at school.
Kristin Allen
I agree! I teach 3 yr olds! They need to learn how to write the correct way to write! I teach mine that the first letter in names are capital letters….the following letters are lower case!
Sherry
I start to teach writing skill strokes first. Big shapes to little in size. When this is learned ; I start with “at” words and add a letter or 2 a week. So we start with at then add a “Bb” for bat and so on. They not only can write the letters but they now know how to read 20 words that we make up stories for . But thanks for some ideas I had not thought of to develope little muscles,
DWS
Many schools use ZooPhonics which teaches lowercase first. Kids get defensive about their accomplishment of writing their name in all caps; Don’t do it! Lowercase is a little more difficult to write, but worth it. They won’t know the difference if you start with it-just don’t be too insistent that they STAY on the curved lines when tracing lowercase. Reinforce Successive Approximations= baby steps-and learn how to stop on a positive.
Janelle Johnson
While your ideas are great, I highly disagree with teaching uppercase letters first. I’ve been a first grade teacher for years and every year I get students who write in all caps. It’s very hard to undo this bad habit. Children see 90% lowercase letters in all of their reading materials. They need to recognize and write lowercase letters