Fine Motor

Handwriting

Pencil Grip 101

Handwriting Standards

Helping Hands: Fine Motor and Handwriting Resource Guide and Considerations

Activities and Strategies to support handwriting:

  • 5-10 minutes of supervised handwriting practice every day! No more than this in order to stay motivated.

  • Follow Handwriting Without Tears directions for letter formation. Use their practice sheets for extra help in forming letters correctly.

  • Apps! Handwriting Without Tears has an app called Wet Dry Try. Another favorite to practice letter formation is called Letter School.

  • Encourage writing letters outside of school to pen pals, grandma and grandpa, friends, etc.

  • Try to be consistent with the type of paper (double lined, single lined, dotted lined, colored lined) while students are learning letter formation. Handwriting Without Tears promotes double lines, where small letters fit into the middle space, tall letters go in the top space, and descending letters go in the bottom space. Once they have formation mastered, you can introduce different styles of paper.

  • Writing Warm-Ups: Have student complete these before every writing assignment.

  1. Push my hands together and release 10 times. Rub my hands on my legs 10 times.

  2. Open and close my fingers 10 times.

  3. Place my hands on the chair seat and then raise my bottom off of the seat 10 times.

  4. Breathe in slowly through my nose and then blow out through my lips. Repeat 5 times. (From "I Hate to Write! Tips for helping students with autism spectrum and related disorders increase achievement, meet academic standards, and become happy, successful writers."Boucher, C. & Oehler, K. 2013)

Fine Motor

Activities to support fine motor skills: