In this blog, we will talk about some simple activities to build and improve pre-writing skills for toddlers and preschoolers.
What are some of the benefits of Pre-Writing Activities?
Working on pre-writing skills (lines and strokes) in hands-on ways will naturally develop your child's fine motor skills and provide them with the well-rounded handwriting skills they need for letter formation, line orientation, spacing, and hand grasp.
Some benefits of working on pre-writing skills include:
· Promoting proper hand grasp/pencil grasp on objects used in hands-on activities (such as tongs, paint brushes, grasping objects, etc). Particularly working on the pincer grasp will be helpful for future handwriting skills.
· Hand strength needed to grasp a pencil
· Hand manipulation skills needed to pick up and put down a pencil, plus moving a pencil to form letters across the paper.
· Working from left to right pre-writing lines/shapes and letter formations
· Finger dexterity and strength needed for handwriting assignments
· Bilateral coordination in the hands to be able to hold the paper and write at the same time
· Crossing midline and choosing a dominant hand for handwriting tasks
Here are some fun activities to strengthen fine motor skills to prepare your child to write:
· Trace it out - Finger tracing is the easiest and most effective way to prepare them for writing.
· Using Tweezers - With the help of tweezers ask your little one to pick up objects. This develops finger strength to grip objects.
· Art and Crafts - Folding paper, finger painting, doodling with crayons and sticking activities are great to support finger strength. It helps in increasing several sensory skills for your little one.
· Cut with Scissors - Use child safety scissors and help your child to cut out the outlines of some shapes. You can also ask them to paste these shapes and create some fun crafts.
· Stick and Paste Activity - Draw the outline of a letter and put some glue all over it. Ask your child to pick up lentils and stick them all around to form the letter.
The Simple View of Writing
A model of writing, developed by Berninger in 2002 to address the developmental processes of how children learn to write, is referred to as the “Simple View of Writing”. In this model, the working memory (activating short- or long-term memory depending on the writing task) is considered to affect the whole writing process.
It states that the early stages of writing development, the transcription processes are foundational and both handwriting and spelling are the basis from which the writer can translate the ideas he/she has into written text.
We will talk more about different aspects of handwriting and its improvement in our upcoming blogs.