Seven Ways to Help with Handwriting
by Peggy Gisler, Ed.S. and Marge Eberts, Ed.S.
Kids aren't able to write well until they have developed good fine-motor skills. Fortunately, these skills improve easily with lots of practice.
Use the following activities to help your young child develop the precision, balance, and hand-eye coordination that are needed to perform the fine-motor skills used in handwriting:
1. Give your child clay or play-dough to play with to strengthen the major muscles used in handwriting.
2. Encourage her to play with Legos, miniature cars, small blocks, action figures, and other small toys.
3. Do puzzles with your child.
4. Provide creative art projects that involve using crayons, marking pens, scissors, and finger paints, as well as tearing paper.
5. Play games with your child that involve the handling of cards and small game pieces.
6. Ask your child to sort collections of loose coins into stacks of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.
7. Help your child learn to manage such everyday skills as tying and lacing his shoes and buttoning his clothes.
Remember, every child has a different timetable in acquiring the fine-motor skills needed for handwriting. The more your child uses her fingers in activities, the sooner she will acquire these skills.
Writing paper we use in school
Information about handwriting
PRINTABLE HANDWRITING PAPERS
Handwriting practice-verbal path
Some activities to do at home regarding reversals
-Practice activites that reinforce directions like Simon Says
-Have the student practice tracing letters Here is a link to print an alphabet worksheet Upper Case Printable Alphabet Lower Case Printable Alphabet Animated Upper Case Alphabet Animated Lower Case Alphabet
-Do a letter sort with plastic magnetic letters, talking about which ones have straight lines, which ones have curves, which side the curves go.
