< All Topics
Print

The Importance of Handwriting

Handwriting helps children learn to read more quickly. It helps them generate ideas and hold on to information.

Researchers, Karin James and Laura Englehardt, found that when children write letters freehand, they activate three areas of the brain that aren’t activated if they simply trace the letters or type them (James and Englehart 2012).

They demonstrated a link between a child’s cognitive ability to write and their ability to read. The areas of the brain that are activated when a child writes letters freehand are the same areas that are activated during reading.

Practice with Pre-Writing Skills Can Give a Child a Head Start

Pre-Writing Skills are strokes and shapes that preschoolers can start practicing before they start school. These are the most common strokes in the English alphabet. These include practicing lines vertically and horizontally, crosses, diagonal lines in both directions and triangles.

Source:
The effects of handwriting experience on functional brain development in pre-literate children. Karin H. James and Laura Engelhardt. Trends in Neuroscience and Education. 2012.

Tips to Improve Handwriting

If you’re concerned that your child’s handwriting is not up to the level for his age and
maturity, you might be wondering how to improve handwriting skills.

  1. Download handwriting practice sheets: There are lots of downloadable handwriting sheets available to parents. Handwriting worksheets are a great way to help your child develop the muscles and motor skills for better penmanship.
  2. Purchase a few handwriting practice books: These provide tips for parents and educators to improve kids handwriting at home.
  3. Consider programs like Handwriting Without Tears: These specifically focus on helping children with handwriting difficulties through fun activities. (https://www.lwtears.com/hwt)
  4. Consider occupational therapy programs: Find programs that offer specific exercises for developing motor skills, proprioception, and sensory skills – all of which can improve your handwriting skills.
  5. Help your child practice by alternating writing long stories or paragraphs: Verbally discuss the story or homework paragraph first. Then, take turns writing a sentence at a time with your child. It will speed up the homework process and keep it from being too overwhelming and frustrating.
  6. Provide auditory feedback by telling your child to speak each word aloud as he or she writes them: Listen and encourage them as they do so.
  7. Practice drawing letters in a variety of multi-sensory exercises: Use ideas like drawing in the sand, on a touch screen, a chalk or dry erase board, or in the air.
  8. Use multi-sensory handwriting practice paper with raised ruled lines: These are an excellent tool to help children with their handwriting skills.
  9. Use a pencil grip trainer to practice proper mature grip: For example, the Grotto Grip trainer was developed by occupational therapists to train and strengthen a mature grip on a writing utensil.
  10. Strengthen the muscles of the hand in general: This can be done with stress balls, playing with Legos or puzzles, practicing button closures, threading crafts, or manipulating tweezers in games like Operation or Feed the Woozle.
Table of Contents

Add Your Heading Text Here