The secret to learning to write: go clockwise!

There are many schools of thought regarding writing, not least if a child should be taught cursive handwriting in their reception year, or if this is a secondary skill which should be taken on later. As more and more children enter the reception year with poor fine motor skills, parents are concerned that the demand on their child is too great. 

At Raviv Practice London, most children we work with are in primary school and struggle with a number of issues. Most are not diagnosed, but there is an obvious problem that their schools are not addressing. We jump in and help resolve the issue quickly and permanently (in most cases).

As a pre-school skill, I encourage parents to allow their children to draw on vertical surfaces; this encourages many gross motor skills that are prerequisites to good fine motor control. 

We start with drawing circles

This is an exercise we use extensively with children of any age who have the following problems: 

• Handwriting quality

• Reversing letters

• Reversing numbers

• Tracking skills when reading

• Tracking skills when writing

• Understanding left and right

The circles must always go clockwise. I have discovered practising and understanding how to form shapes clockwise allows the child to transfer their knowledge to both number writing and letter writing. The reason for this is that when writing using cursive script you start from the line you write from and move clockwise. It doesn't matter which letter you write you need to move from left to right in a clockwise motion. Why cursive? It is recommended to help learn spelling patterns - it’s faster.

For the circle drawing exercise, we use a whiteboard placed at the child’s eye level so that they can work vertically first, before attempting to write head facing down on a piece of paper. Physically, being upright is easier for young children from a point of aiding reflex integration and helps them to anchor the motor processes involved in hand-eye coordination.  The starting point for the circle is always at eye level and central to the whiteboard. This means half the circle is on the right and the other half to the left. 

Before they start, the hand that is not being used for writing can be put on the wall to use as a navigation tool. You can put a dot centrally at eye level for them to start from. If a child is left-handed, they draw the circle towards the resting right hand. If they are right-handed, they draw away from the circle away from the resting left hand. In each instance, the non-writing hand has an active role. The circle must be around 40/45cm in diameter.  

Talking as a left-handed person…

Many problems can co-exist and may be so small they never get diagnosed. I am a left-handed person, and for me understanding the difference between clockwise and anti-clockwise was extraordinarily difficult. Left-handed children will naturally want to turn anti-clockwise when doing gross motor activities, such as dancing, and when doing fine motor activities, such as writing. They are more comfortable writing curved letters that form an anti-clockwise motion such as the letter d than clockwise motion when writing b.  

When children learn to write they will mostly start with printed form writing. With printed form writing if you want to write a b for example, you draw a line and then decide which side the curve will be. If you are right-handed, clockwise shapes come naturally and if you’re left-handed, left-handed shapes such as d, q, s, a, c, g etc come naturally. 

However, it is very important to nurture cursive handwriting at a young age, because it only goes in one direction, clockwise. This clockwise movement is used regardless of handedness. This movement from left to right is also fundamental to reading and writing too. Using the guiding hand principle mentioned above will help a lot to start the journey to writing cursive script. 

It’s the same with numbers

When you look at numbers 2, 3, 7, 5 they all go from left to right, following the same clockwise principle. Try writing these out for yourself, now, while you are conscious of this clockwise motion, and you’ll see how important it is. Especially the number 3 – a double clockwise! No surprise that this is the number which causes frequent confusion!

If you have a child that continues to reverse their letters and numbers, or is experiencing any of the problems mentioned above, get in touch. I’m sure we can 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.