Tips for helping your child to learn to write

My son had a difficult time learning to write with a pencil. These are some of the things to help him develop his penmanship.

Tracing patterns

First, we had him trace between two lines in various patterns: straight lines, zig zags, waves, etc. Then we gave him enlarged letters to trace with his finger.

Use a triangular rubber holder

He had trouble holding the pencil. He had trouble remembering how to hold his fingers and had trouble pushing hard enough to make a mark on the paper. We used a triangle rubber holder on his pencil, designed to keep the fingers and thumb in the correct position.

Teach cursive writing

Printing letters requires that the pencil be lifted off the paper and put back down to start the next letter, which can be difficult. We used a cursive letter app for an iPad Cursive Writing Wizard by L'Escapadou and Cursive Writing by Horizon Business for our son to practice. He was very happy to trace the letters with his finger. We found that the cursive letters where easier for him to trace and he was very happy spending his time practising. After a short time we purchased a Stylus (a writing instrument for an iPad) for him to use and he learned to write his cursive letters very quickly. We found that once he learned to write in cursive the printing became easy for him.

Practice writing motivating words

Our son loves road signs. We had him practice his printing by writing road signs. As he loves to make road signs, which require printed letters, he now prints all the time using his markers. You can use any words that your child finds motivating (favourite TV characters, toys etc).

Offer choice
Writing with a choice of a colourful marker or pencil crayon can also give them the motivation to start printing

Check out the CanChild.ca website
Here is a link to a great resource for teaching your child how to form letters
See the printing handout under school resources