Handwriting is more than ABC, 123, periods and paragraphs. There are many underlying skills that require development to support handwriting. Does your child get frustrated during writing assignments? Does their teacher complain their work is illegible? Do they complain of headaches or hand pain? These might all be attributed to poor development of or weakness in several areas.

Essential Pieces of the Handwriting Process

Handwriting is a process which requires the coordination of hands, eyes, arms, body posture, strength, and cognitive skills. 

1. Bilateral Coordination (use of two hands) – It is important that kids understand that both hands have a “job” as they write. The dominant hand does the work/writing and the non-dominant hand is the “helping hand” to stabilize objects or the paper 
   
2. Vision – Vision is more than just how well you see. There are many visual components needed to be successful with handwriting.
   
3. Upper Extremity and Hand Strength – Larger muscles need to develop before small muscles do. This is important for building endurance and maintaining accuracy when writing.
   
4. Posture – If kids are having a difficult time maintaining a seated posture, their focus will be on that instead of writing or seated activities. Good posture promotes the concentration needed to make those first letters and numbers.
   
5. Cognition – Writing must have a meaning and purpose to kids. If they do not know their letters or letter sounds, it can be difficult to move forward with letter formation and handwriting.
   

Developmentally, children learn to imitate and copy the lines needed to form letters also known as pre-writing strokes. These lines include horizontal, vertical, circular, diagonal, and cross. These skills should start emerging around 2 years of age with the horizontal line and progress to improved accuracy with a circle and cross shape by 3.5-4 years of age. If your child hasn’t had the opportunity or exposure to practicing these lines to prepare for handwriting, don’t worry, there are plenty of play-based activities that can help prepare them!

Preparing for Handwriting Through Play

Playtime is a parent’s most important tool for introducing and developing new skills. Play activities that your toddler can participate in that will help get them school-ready for learning handwriting include:

Painting allows your child to start practicing use of a “tool”. Holding a paint brush can work on grasp development and motor accuracy. Practicing these pre-writing strokes on a larger scale allows for whole body learning and improvement of motor memory. Larger paint brushes allow for better control for little hands.

Finger painting/drawing allows toddlers to practice lines and shapes while also providing a great sensory experience (touch, smell, and sight). It can also promote creativity, emotional, and cognitive development. You don’t even have to use paint! You can spread out everyday food items like pudding, whipped cream, rice, and ground up cheerios on a cookie sheet or tray for kids to draw in as a taste-safe, skill-developing treat. Who’s ready to get messy?!

Other tools that are developmentally appropriate for little hands include egg shaped crayons, golf pencils, and triangle crayons. The triangle shape helps promote a functional tripod grasp which kids should by 5-6 years of age. Paint daubers are a great way to use larger muscles to imitate making dots, snakes, lines, faces and other pictures. Paint daubers are also good practice to use two hands and work on the twisting motion to open and close the container.

Chalk or dry erase markers are a fun way to engage kids with handwriting. These materials can allow for repetition and multiple opportunities to copy the line or letter you’re practicing by using the tool, then using a wet sponge or finger to erase in the same pattern you used to create the design. This provides another tactile learning opportunity as well.

Play itself is great for working on the small muscles hands need to develop handwriting skills. When the weather is nice, climbing on the playground, swinging from monkey bars, crawling through tunnels help build hand strength and endurance. When you can’t get outside, activities such as peeling stickers, building with interlocking blocks, and playing with magnets are all age-appropriate activities that can help your little one prepare for handwriting.