Practical steps to help your child with handwriting before primary school

 If your child is graduating from nursery and is now going to start primary school, and you're worried about their lack of interest in holding a pencil, crayon, or paintbrush, this post is for you.

Simple techniques, and a few resources, can make a big difference in six to eight weeks.

Equipment needed for handwriting exercises

There’s no need for any expensive or specialist equipment to be able to do these exercises easily at home. You will only need a vertical surface such as a whiteboard mounted at your child's level and be 60cm wide and 40cm high. The writing surface needs to be big enough for unrestricted movement.

The method used for handwriting exercises in the first four weeks

Start out by asking your child to do some tracing exercises.

Young children find drawing under instructions difficult. They may not be able to draw a circle or any other shape with much success, which is why the best way to start is to allow them to trace a circle you draw.

Draw a circle of about 40cm in diameter, and then place a dot at the centre top (the position of 12 O’clock). This mark is important as it gives your child a starting point for the tracking exercise. Regardless of whether they are left or right handed, tracing must start from this point and move clockwise (left handed children prefer anti-clockwise - but clockwise is better) . By placing the starting point at the centre, half the circle falls on either side. Moving clockwise is important as it creates a motor movement that will be called upon as their handwriting develops.

The child may have yet to decide which hand they wish to use to write with, and may even change from their right hand to their left hand. Changing hands is okay and perfectly acceptable. They may want to steady themselves by placing the non-writing hand on the wall; this will aid in establishing hand dominance for writing.

The duration of this exercise can be extended beyond four weeks or reduced if no difficulties are experienced.

What does this exercise achieve?

The tracing exercise allows your child to experience directionality to the right and left. As they are at eye level, they can implement hand-eye coordination quickly and with greater ease. They should move their eyes, not their entire head, which is easier for them with this setup, and teaches them to keep their heads still while seeing where to draw.

You may ask, why a circle? Circles and curves are far easier to draw, and are the starting blocks of any mark-making. When you have an evenly placed circle, the child must move their eyes and hand cross their body’s midline. If they have the ATNR reflex retained, moving their eyes may be difficult. By continuing this simple exercise, the child learns to move their eyes in both directions, and across the midline.

The method used for handwriting exercises in the final four weeks

Once the infant has mastered tracing, they must move on to drawing for themselves.

Remember this exercise is still done on a vertical surface. Place the same starting point (a dot at 12 O’clock) at the height you used before, and position your child centrally to the mark, but this time without drawing anything else for them.

They may like to rest their non-writing hand on the whiteboard, and you can use this resting hand as a directional tool. If they are resting the left hand, you can say draw away from the resting (left) hand, and in the case of left-handers, you can say draw toward the resting hand. In both instances they are drawing a clockwise circle.

The aim of the drawing exercise

·   we are aiming for the eyes to move, not the entire head (this is why the circle can not be so large that it is impossible to track)

·   the movement should come from the shoulder, not the wrist, a bit like turning a skipping rope

·   the process should be slow and smooth

·   work towards a tripod handwriting grip

·   The circle should be an even curve

Problems that can occur

Don’t worry if your child runs into problems during these exercises. It is all part of the process and important to their development.

For example, the circle may not be smooth when traced or drawn, or it looks more like a balloon than a circle. Maybe the drawing is slow on one side and rushed on the other. If your child is not following the pen/pencil with their eyes, then there is no hand-eye coordination, or there might be portions of the circle where visual tracking occurs, and others not. You might even notice that when your child is drawing, they stick their tongue out unintentionally!

These are all valuable feedback points, and by going slower, or making changes to the exercise such as making the circle smaller or guiding their hands, things will start to fall into place.

The final outcome

As these exercises help with moving the eyes and hands across the body’s midline, they develop the same skills needed for handwriting from left to right.

Doing the exercise above will help with moving the eyes and hands across the body midline; this is required for handwriting from left to right. More and more schools are starting with cursive handwriting, which are movements are from left to right, just like the circle formation exercise above.

Doing this means they are less likely to reverse their letters when writing. There are many benefits, but most importantly cursive allows for a natural flow of movement.

If you, and your child, are struggling, remember: you are not alone! Get in touch for some extra help.

Dyslexia? Dyspraxia? ADHD? ASD? Speech & Language? Developmental Delay? Anxiety?

Is every school day a struggle? As a parent, you may feel exhausted and on this journey alone. Each year you see the gap getting wider. You need to do something - change the approach, help your child learn for themselves, find a way to turn this around - to help while you can - do this NOW. the first step is free.