Tips to Improve Writing Readiness

Handwriting is one of the important skills necessary for academic success. Nowadays, children are introduced to writing as early as two or three years old. However, this is far too young – children are not ready for writing at this age. We can, though, work on the foundation skills necessary for the development of handwriting skills. We call these pre-writing skills. Pre-writing skills are the building blocks of writing readiness. Find below the different pre-writing skills as well as some fun activities to develop them:

• Hand and finger strength:
  • Play dough (Play-Doh) and putty are great materials to develop finger and hand strength as you knead, squeeze and pull the dough. You can also experiment with making different types of dough to provide different textures.

• Crossing the midline:
  • Throw or roll a ball towards different targets such as to the right or left of an established midpoint.
  • Bat balloons with both hands on the bat.

• Pencil grip:
  • Use small (approximately one-inch), fat crayons to colour, scribble, or draw. This can help your child to hold the crayon in a tripod grasp.
    *Note that for a two-year-old holding a marker or crayon in a fisted grasp is developmentally appropriate.

• Upper body strength:
  • Weight-bearing activities such as wheelbarrow walking, different animal walks (bear, crab, snake, etc.) can help develop the child’s posture, stability, and the control needed when performing precise and intricate movements of the hand.
  • Climbing and using playground equipment are great in increasing stability and strength in the arms and trunk. You can also encourage your child to lie on their tummy with the arms propped at the elbows while reading or colouring.

• Object manipulation (in-hand manipulation):
  • Play with construction toys such as Lego and Duplo.
  • Play with coin banks and Connect 4. Try to hold several coins/chips in the palm while placing each one into the slot one at a time.

• Bilateral integration:
  • Bouncing a large ball with both hands, tearing strips of paper to make a collage, or pulling apart construction toys with both hands require symmetrical movements of both hands.
  • Threading, cutting, and colouring activities on the other hand require both hands to do different things at the same time.

• Hand division:
  • Provide activities that require the child to pick up small objects with their fingers. You can use pompoms. Encourage them to pick them up with their thumb, index and middle fingers while keeping the ring and pinky fingers tucked in against the palm. You can print out Dot-a-Dot printables and have your child pick up the pompoms and place them on specific areas.
  • Tweezers and tongs are also great activities to encourage hand division. You can have them hold small objects with their ring and pinky fingers as they use the tweezers with their thumb, index, and middle fingers to pick up different objects.

• Visual perception:
  • Jigsaw puzzles and mazes are some activities you can engage in to develop visual perceptual skills. You can also try tracing in different mediums such as sand, shaving foam, or on a chalkboard.

• Hand dominance:
  • Lacing is a great activity to encourage the use of a dominant hand. Other such activities are pushing cars or trains along tracks, and screwing lids on and off jars.

• Hand-eye coordination:
  • Ball activities such as throwing, rolling, and catching can help develop hand-eye coordination skills. You can also do activities such as colouring and drawing.

The above tips are not in any way meant to replace therapy when it is necessary, but to provide ideas to help support your child’s development at home. Should you have any concern with regards to your child’s developmental skills, it is best to consult an Occupational Therapist.