Handwriting development begins from the time your child starts to use a crayons to put marks on a page. This is called mark making.
Their scribbles start to take form in the basic lines such as the vertical, horizontal, circle and diagonal lines. They then put these lines together form shapes or even a person. Eventually these shapes are put together to form letters and numbers. Handwriting development follows a sequence from shaky letter formation to handwriting that can see them through examinations.
Handwriting is the process of forming letters. Number formation is also included under handwriting. Writing is the process of taking those letters and putting them together to from words, sentences and paragraphs with meaning.
The first time your child formally encounters handwriting development and letter formation is usually learning to write their name. We have a blog post about this and encourage you to use lower-case letters for this. In the blog posts we look at how important it is to use a multi-sensory approach for handwriting. This ensures the brain gets and stores as much information as it can on how to form a letter or number. We also focus on the teaching order of letters that encourages correct letter formation.
Good handwriting development is not only about letter formation. The physical aspects of how the book is positioned on the table, as well as stabilising the page with the helping hand play a critical role in the establishment of good handwriting patterns. The blog posts cover this and provide dowloadable resources to empower teachers, parents and occupational therapists to help their children with handwriting development.
Children can struggle with handwriting development and acquisition. Sometimes their pencil control is really poor which results in poorly formed and shaky letters. Children also struggle with the correct orientation of letters and numbers which can result in letter and number reversals.
The goal of the handwriting development part of the blog is to inform and empower so that those involved with helping children have strategies and a direction to follow to help them.
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