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Hope All of you are keeping well and been reading My latest posts and enjoying what I have written and learnt some new things I have been writing. I thought of writing about the importance of Handwriting 🙂
Key points
- Handwriting is an important part of literacy and an essential skill for life.
- For toddlers and preschoolers, handwriting is about drawing and scribbling with crayons, pencils and chalk.
- Older children learn formal handwriting at school.
- Everyday activities like drawing, writing shopping lists and writing on cards can help children learn to write by hand.
Why handwriting is important
Handwriting is an essential life skill.
For example, children who can write smoothly and clearly are better able to use writing to record thoughts and ideas. When handwriting is automatic, ideas can flow. Children also need to write for many school lessons and tasks. Handwriting skills help children develop reading and spelling skills. Handwriting also helps with the ability to recall and remember information. And we need handwriting skills to do many tasks later in life, like writing birthday cards, filling in forms and signing important documents.
How handwriting develops
Handwriting is a complex skill that develops over time. To learn handwriting, children need to combine fine motor skills, language, memory and concentration. They also need to practise and follow instructions. Handwriting starts with scribbling and drawing then moves on to forming letters, words and sentences.
You can encourage your child to develop an interest in handwriting by giving them opportunities to draw, scribble and write. This prepares your child for the formal handwriting they’ll learn at school.
Left-handed writing in children
Most children choose to write and draw with their right hand. But some children choose their left hand. This is OK. When children choose their left hand to write with, there’s no need for them to swap hands.
Toddlers: drawing and early handwriting skills
Drawing is the start of handwriting for toddlers, usually at around 2 years.
Drawing starts with making marks or scribbles on paper and other surfaces. At first, toddlers usually move markers, crayons or chalk back and forth across paper. Gradually, they gain more control and might try to make lines and curves. Sometimes older toddlers might tell you what their marks are – for example, ‘a caterpillar’ or ‘a cat’.
Here are ideas to get your toddler scribbling, drawing and ‘writing’:
- Have crayons and paper, or chalk and blackboard, handy. Small chunks of chalk or crayons encourage your toddler to use a fingertip grip. This helps your toddler learn to hold a pencil.
- Provide various materials for your toddler to draw on – for example, coloured paper, cardboard, and notebooks with lines and blank pages.
- Sit with your toddler and draw pictures together.
- Encourage your toddler to draw things that interest them. For example, if your toddler likes insects, you could draw a centipede and your toddler could add a lot of legs. Or on a rainy day you could draw a big cloud and your toddler could draw rain falling down.
- Prop up your toddler’s drawing surface so that it’s on an angle. You could use an easel or blackboard. This helps your toddler make downward strokes, which they need to do for writing later on.
- Encourage your toddler to squeeze and pinch things. This could be threading big beads, squeezing and pinching playdough into shapes, or building with blocks and Duplo. This helps your toddler develop the hand muscles needed for using pencils.
- Let your toddler see you writing by hand for different purposes – for example, to make a list, leave a message, or write down a phone number.
Preschoolers: getting started with handwriting
Children usually start to draw straight and circular lines in the preschool years. Your child might even put these lines and shapes together to draw people and objects. Your child might also start to form letters and numbers.
Plenty of opportunities to draw will help your child keep developing the skills they need for handwriting:
- Keep giving your child chunky crayons and chalk until they develop the finger and thumb grip needed to hold a pencil.
- Encourage your child to trace simple top-to-bottom and left-to-right lines on a page, trying to stay on the lines all the way to the end. Make up a story to add interest to the activity. For example, ‘Help this puppy find the way home’.
- Practise drawing anticlockwise circles that start at the top of the page. This is the pattern we use to form letters.
- As your child gets more control over crayons or pencils, encourage them to draw simple stick figure people. If you put your child’s pictures on the fridge or wall, they’ll feel proud of their work.
- Encourage your child to trace over the letters of their name. At first you might need to put your hand over your child’s hand to help them.
- Help your child learn the alphabet sequence. Try clapping your hands in a steady rhythm while you say the letters together. Doing this with music or singing the alphabet song together can also help.
Encourage your child to write and draw with other materials. For example, your child could draw lines in sand or mud, trace over letters on signs with their finger, form 3D letters from playdough, and so on. Take photos of these drawings if you want to print them out and display them.
Learning to write involves a combination of skills and abilities and an understanding of language.
Children with handwriting difficulties might need extra help and aids. These might include:
- angled writing boards
- chunky pencils
- pencil grips
- paper with coloured dotted lines, bold lines or raised tactile lines.
- Latest Update: 23rd September 2024. The website continues for the New Reader and Followers. Hope what I have written is useful that helps you to feel more Positive and Happier This is “The 246th Post” and with the “Introductory Page this will be all in Total up to date, 247 posts. On Top Right-Hand side, you are able to see: The word “Menu” when you click on it. You will see the word “Home” All the posts from “The Very Beginning comes ~ Under “Home”. Which is The Introductory Page about: Who I am & Why I am Writing!
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September 28th, 2024, soon after My Grandfathers 135th Birthday Celebration, I have been informed that I have been given Enough money to” Carry on My Wish of Giving or sending Gifts “Under Wishing Star Foundation~ Gifts!
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The Topics in Green, if you “Click” on them “Will take you to My other different posts which you will be able to find more information and even Pronunciation”. I have another website with “My own little Poems and Pictures of some of My Hobbies” if you are interested on seeing, “What else I am doing” during my spare time you can have a look at: https://deepanilamani.com/
As always, it is all free”. You can share and pass it on also for others who can benefit from this post. I hope All those who Read will be able to make the maximum use of all these facts and make, “Your Lives More Healthy and able to Live in” Peace which is our Ultimate Goal in life ❤
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