Giving your child the chance to practice is vital when helping him to develop early literacy skills.
As soon as your child is old enough to scribble, offer some big crayons and a sheet of paper to encourage experimentation.
As your child grows older, create a special area in your home with paper, markers, crayons, pencils, paint and brushes so your child can happily spend time drawing and creating artwork!
You can also encourage your child to practice drawing and writing when you’re outside, providing chalk to draw on the pavement. Practice is the only way that kids will develop the muscles, skills and coordination that is needed to form letters.
As your child enters school and starts practicing writing, they should also keep practicing at home. Getting your child to write letters and thank-you notes to friends and family are great ways to encourage hand-writing skills. Getting your child to help you write lists and encouraging them to write diaries are also great ideas.
If your child’s handwriting continues to be messy and hard to read after formal lessons at school, these tips may help:
- Encourage your child to take it slow. Many kids find it difficult to write because they try to do it quickly, encourage your child to form the letters with care.
- Make sure that your child knows that everyone will make a mistake and teach your child how to use an eraser.
- Speak to your child’s teachers and ask how he should be forming letters, encourage your child to practice writing using the correct letter patterns. your child's teacher how he or she should be
- Ensure that your child knows how to correctly position a pencil, ideally your child should use a tripod grasp which means the pencil should be held in place with the thumb, index and middle fingers. A pencil grip may help your child if he has problems holding the pencil correctly.
- Make sure your child is exposed to lots of words, read regularly together, point out words or even play a game of junior scrabble together!
It is vital for children to practice using their handwriting. Nowadays, with our tehcnology based society many children will be more comfortable using a keyboard than a pencil but it's vital that handwriting skills are developed early.
