Learning to write isn't just about having great ideas and sounding out the words. You can help your child right from toddlerhood to be a successful writer. Here's how...
Core Strength
Children need strong core muscles for sitting in order to support their posture for writing. They also need strength in the upper body to stabilise the shoulder so it can pivot in order for the fingers and hand to move pencils along paper. These activities build strength in the body and help it learn to provide the right amount of control, force and stability.
1️⃣Hanging - monkey bars - either just holding or swinging.
2️⃣Pulling – pulling the swing back, preparing the zip wire.
3️⃣Climbing – climbing the ladders and ropes on the playground.
4️⃣Pushing - manoeuvring a roundabout, pushing a swing.
5️⃣Yoga - no equipment needed but this one is great for muscle strengthening, postural control and crossing the midline.
For more watch our video:
The Importance of Strong Wrists
Why is the wrist important for writing?
👋🏼Simply put, it allows you to rotate and bend your hand.
👋🏼It enables us to develop the correct grip strength for holding writing tools.
👋🏼The wrist supports the hand in any mark making it does.
👋🏼It influences handwriting and determines whether letter formation is tiring or challenging.
👋🏼Strength in the wrist improves general fine motor control.
These activities will help to build strength in your child's wrists:
✨Bonus idea for helping at home - get your child reaching up and to the left and right while painting, dancing, building etc. All of this will help!✨
Don't Forget The Hands
Right from babyhood, your child has used their hands to grab and clasp anything they could get their hands on. But this basic task develops into them learning how to use an appropriate amount of pressure over a tool, i.e a pencil. Pretty cool, right?
By the end of primary school, children are expected to write legibly when writing at speed, as well as remembering to use all sorts of punctuation, spelling and grammar. This is why we must develop the strength in the hand to make this element of the task easier for them.
These activities are fun ways to practise the dexterity, strength and stamina needed to improve their writing, throughout their school career. But they’d also make great fine motor warm ups before a writing lesson.
And finally, the fingers...
Ever heard of a finger gym? That’s exactly what these activities are - a workout for the fingers. But did you know your child may move back and forth with their pencil grip for a while? It’s really common and they’ll get there in the end.
These activities will improve your child’s pencil grip and letter formation:
What does your child find hard when it comes to writing? Let me know so I can give you some ideas ⬇️💬