How to develop pre-writing skills of a child ?

What are Pre-writing skills?

Pre-writing skills are the fundamental skills children need to develop before they are able to write. These skills are essential pre-requisites for a child before he/she learns to write letters/numbers or words. These include the pencil strokes that most letters, numbers, shapes and early drawings are comprised of.

Why are pre-writing skills important?

Pre-writing skills are essential to develop because:-

➧These skills assist a child to develop the ability to hold and move a pencil easily and effectively.

➧Help to produce legible writing hence boosting the child's self-confidence.

➧The child is motivated to write & doesn't need to be forced to if his pre-writing skills are well developed.

➱On the other hand, if these skills are underdeveloped, it can lead to frustration, resistance to writing, low self-esteem, and poor academic performance.

Some common problems that children show when their pre-writing skills are not developed adequately are:-

➤They are disinterested to write even if they can answer verbally.

➤They have difficulty holding the pencil or manipulating pencil within their hand while writing.

➤They lack the confidence to write. Therefore, always need someone to hold their hands while writing.

➤Coloring within the lines is difficult.

➤Difficulty in copying simple shapes or strokes., etc.

Being a pediatric occupational therapist, I have come across many children with some of the above issues. This is a major concern for many parents. 

When a child starts showing her interest in writing, usually by around four years of age, it is an exciting time for parents.

However, many parents make this common mistake to teach their child how to write letters and numbers when the child is not yet ready... 

This might be fun initially, but gradually, the child loses interest in writing as she has to put in a lot of extra efforts to hold & control the pencil, or to make the strokes of the letter making her exhausted. It is highly essential that we focus on developing the prewriting skills of a child at that stage to have a strong foundation.

In this article, I will be sharing some common factors that affect pre-writing skills & also, I will be sharing some easy activities that you can do at home to develop his/her pre-writing skills.

There are many factors that should be considered that impact the handwriting of a child & therefore these should be focused on while working on the pre-writing skills.

Sensory-motor components impacting handwriting

⏩ Tactile & Proprioceptive system :

They give information regarding the grasp of pencil/crayon & surface (blackboard/paper). 

Ex-How does a pencil/crayon feel like in the hands, how much pressure is needed to hold it, how much pressure can be applied on the paper to write smoothly, etc.

If a child has difficulties in processing these sensory inputs, he/she might:-

➧Hold the pencil too loose or too tight breaking the nibs repeatedly.

➧Pencils & erasers constantly fall from his hands.

➧Writing might be very light on the paper.

➧Pressing the pencil so hard on the paper that there are holes.

➧Has a hard time completing a writing or coloring task.

➧ Cannot copy even simple lines or shapes correctly.

⏩ Visual system:

It helps to scan the written line, to identify and discriminate between similar letters/numbers, to colour between lines, in copying from a near or far surface, etc.

This is another very important system that must be focused on before a child starts learning to write. Several activities focusing on visual perceptual skills should be practiced.

 If  a child has issues in visual processing skills, he/she will have difficulties in:-

➧Identification of letters/numbers.

➧Discrimination between similar letters(b/d), numbers(2/5), words(saw/was),etc.

➧Coloring within the lines

➧Copying, & many more...

⏩ Muscle tone:

Allows maintaining of upright position while writing and maintaining the stability of shoulders and arm while the hand moves while writing.

Difficulties in:-

➧Steady holding of a pencil/crayon

➧Less control on the movements of the pencil. As he might have to use his shoulder movements instead of his hand to write/color.

➧Improper grasp and illegible writing

⏩Postural control

Allows the child to maintain an upright position while writing.

Poor postural control can lead to difficulties in:-

➧Sitting upright. The child might always need to lie down or slouching

➧Has a hard time sitting at one place to complete a writing or coloring task even if he loves to color/write. (Frequently moves around in between a task)

There can be some other factors too which affect a child's handwriting like- proximal stability, fine motor control and an ideal pencil grip- Development of all these components play a major role before a child is ready to start writing.

Find about - How to develop a functional/ideal pencil grip in children in 👇

https://abhipsaot.blogspot.com/2021/07/how-to-develop-functional-pencil-grasp.html

What can we do to develop a child's pre-writing skills?

I will be sharing some activities that are simple, fun & effective for developing a child's pre-writing skills. Moreover, they can be done with materials that are easily available in common households.

These activities can be applied to children with Autism, ASD, ADHD, Down syndrome, Learning disabilities, CP, or any child when he is learning to write.

Activities to develop a child's pre-writing skills 

➽ Work on a vertical surface

When starting to write, let your child scribble or make strokes on a vertical or slanting surface, like a whiteboard or blackboard hanging on the wall.

This helps to -

➧Works on maintaining a better postural control

➧ Strengthening the muscles of the shoulder girdle allowing for better proximal stability. The development of good proximal stability is a prerequisite for writing. (The muscles of the shoulder and arms should have good control first before the child can use the small muscles of his hand effectively.)

➧ The child is more focused & attentive if he/she is standing to do a task on a vertical/slanting surface.

Find some simple & fun activities to develop proximal stability in a child in👇

https://abhipsaot.blogspot.com/2021/07/15-easy-activities-to-build-proximal.html

➽ Use of sand trays/fingerpaints/shaving creams, etc

When your child draws various shapes or strokes with his finger using fingerpaints/creams/sandtrays, it provides a lot of tactile & proprioceptive input.

➧The child gets to experience various textures and really enjoys learning. 

➧Your child can learn & remember the letter formations more easily this way where he uses multiple senses. 

➽ Tracing on patterns

This is a fun and easy activity that kids love to do. It is very effective to develop pre-writing skills.

➧You can use wooden tracing boards, or simply tracing on a paper on different patterns of various strokes and curves that are commonly used in all letter-number formations.

➧You can make it more fun by using colorful glitter tubes or glitter pens while tracing or use large crayons.

➽ Dot joining 

This is a good pre-writing activity that promotes pencil control.

➧You can give different patterns of dot joining starting with simple standing lines, sleeping lines. slanting lines.

➧Giving commands like "start" & "stop" at the initial stage helps to develop good control of hand movements.

➧As the child gains more control over his hand movements, practicing "connect the dots" to make simple pictures can be used.

➽ Rainbow colour matching 

This simple activity can be very beneficial to develop: visual attention, colour matching, eye-hand coordination and control of hand movements.

These all are essential skills to develop before learning to write.

➽ Joining dotted lines to draw & colour simple pictures

➽Mazes of different types

This is another fun way of developing pre-writing skills. Practicing activities like"find the ice-cream" through a maze tracing along the line helps to:-

➧Enhance visual tracking skills

➧Develops a good control of hand movements

➧This can be given in different forms to teach different patterns - starting from simple straight lines to more complex patterns.

➽ Use of playdough

Using play dough is the best and most enjoyable activity for children & can be excellent for the development of pre-writing skills & other fine-motor skills.(If playdough is not available, you can use wheat flour"atta" for the same purpose)

Playdough can be used in multiple ways like:

➧Rolling playdough into cylinders or circles using both hands.

➧Making simple shapes, or making letters, or anything the child wants to create using his imagination

➧Using a rolling pin to roll the playdough "making Rotis"

➧Pinch of small amounts of playdough using 2 fingers and rolling with fingers to make small circles

All the above activities are very effective to build good fine motor control, to strengthen small muscles of the fingers & hand, develop a good pencil holding grip, eye-hand coordination & many more benefits.

➽ Scribbling & coloring using crayons 

Children love to scribble, which is very effective to build pre-writing skills. 

➧You can start with the large pear-shaped crayons when child starts to scribble. Those are good to develop child's pencil grip. Gradually, you can give thick cylindrical crayons and then the thinner ones.

➧Let your child scribble & colour a lot so that those small fingers can have better control on holding a pencil/crayon before introducing writing letters/numbers. 

➧Don't focus on the perfection of the drawing at first. Just let the child scribble & have fun before learning to colour within the lines.

➧It helps in developing good proximal stability and good control of hand movements.

➽ Tear & Paste

This activity is enjoyed by all kids & it is very beneficial to develop pre-writing skills. This activity helps to:

➧Strengthen small muscles of the hand

➧Enhances fine motor control

➧Works on eye-hand coordination

➧Improves focus & attention span.

All of the above activities are not only easy & fun but are very effective to develop the pre-writing skills of a child. All of these activities focus on the different factors/prerequisites needed before a child can start writing letters,numbers,words, etc. 

Thus, if you can practice these consistently, they will help your child build a strong foundation making their writing work much easier & they will not miss out on learning opportunities due to difficulty in writing.

Try out!

Enjoy Reading!

Happy parenting to all my readers.😄

About the writer :-

The writer’s name is Abhipsa Parida. She is an occupational therapist specialised in pediatrics and has been handling kids with special needs since 5 years. She is quite experienced and skillful in observation, assessment and planning intervention for kids with special needs. She uses evidence based practice and is very creative and updated in her approach while handling kids with special needs. She has her own clinic in Bhubaneswar and has handled many kids of different age groups with varying needs.

If you have any queries, you can mail them at abhipsaot21@gmail.