Exceptional
Handwriting at 5 or 6
Parents
who have encouraged their young child to spend a lot of time with paper and
pencil in preschool may be rewarded with super writing skills by the time the
child is finishing kindergarten.
As
soon as your child can hold a pencil (a small one such as a golf pencil is
best), encourage your child to draw and scribble. This is the best way to
develop fine motor skills. Don't force it, of course, but certainly encourage
drawing and coloring as much as you can.
Gradually,
you should see more detail in the drawings: instead of stick figures, there
will be facial features, fingers, shoes and clothing. This is helpful as the
child begins to discern details in the differences between the alphabet
letters. The more details the child "sees," the more easily he or she will be
able to memorize how to write each letter, and write words quickly and
accurately.
When
the child starts to try to write letters, purchase a wall chart or desk chart
from a school supply store that shows how to form the letters with arrows
designating the direction of the strokes and when to lift the pencil. Some
educators think it's fine to have the kids master the capital letters first,
but others think it's important to teach kids from the start to write both
capitals and lower-case letters.
Remember:
handwriting strokes are always top to bottom, left to right, and
counter-clockwise on curves and circles.
Here
are some skills of excellent handwriting that a child should ideally display in
kindergarten:
Prints
the entire alphabet, upper and lower case, correctly
Prints
from left to right and from top to bottom
Uses
upper and lower cases in casual writing, such as captions under pictures
Letters
are evenly spaced
Lines
are followed
Prints
first and last name correctly
Writes
the number of his or her age correctly
Spells
almost all familiar words correctly
By Susan Darst Williams • www.GoBigEd.com • Grammar Granny
030 • © 2006