Name Recognition &  Writing

Perth children’s occupational therapy

This is my most widely shared post. And rightly so, it’s an important one. These are “prewriting patterns”, with the average (not prescribed) age at which children are developmentally ready to achieve these patterns listed below them in years and months. Being able to process visual information and produce a movement in response (e.g. copying these prewriting patterns or letter formations), is known as “visual motor integration”. ⠀

Note that an X is not typically achieved until 4 years 11 months, and a triangle at 5 years 3 months. If a child can’t form these basic shapes...then they probably won’t be able to form letters. ⠀

It is quite concerning then that there are 3 year 7 month old's starting formal schooling, where they’re expected to write. Not only are their visual motor integration skills not developed enough, their hands are also physically under-developed. In addition, recognizing letters, understanding phonics and beginning to read are all needed in order for a child to write meaningfully, skills which children starting kindy [Pre-kindergarten] typically don’t have. We also know that when a child learns something that doesn’t hold meaning, it‘s unlikely to stick. ⠀

So if you have a 3-4 year old who spontaneously asks or attempts to write letters, that’s great; otherwise, there is no need to initiate or worry about this. Unfortunately there is a misconception, particularly with the way that the current curriculum stands, that earlier is better. Earlier is not always better.⠀

Source: Beery Buktenica Test of Visual Motor Integration, 6th Edition

The Science of Handwriting - In this digital age, the Science of Handwriting might seem to be heading for extinction, but it is far from it. Handwriting research delves into motor skills, cognitive benefits, and even the emotional impacts of putting pen to paper. Studies have shown that handwriting aids memory retention and fosters a deeper connection with the learned material. 

The Importance of Handwriting

How can Really Great Handwriting Benefit Your Students?

Really Great Reading offers a program called Really Great Handwriting that is integrated with our kindergarten curriculum, Countdown, our first-grade curriculum, Blast, and our second and third grade program, HD word. The addition of Really Great Handwriting benefits teachers and learners because the two programs work together to align letter formation with phonic concepts.

Utilizing Countdown, Blast, or HD Word with Really Great Handwriting builds upon the ideas that students are learning. They appeal to learners by combining visual, auditory, and kinesthetic lessons to teach students about the strokes and movements used to form letters. Our space themed lessons increase student interest as children are learning the foundation of writing.

How do we know if a student is ready to write?

There are readiness skills that must be developed before children are taught to write. These skills are:

• Developing sensorimotor system: these are the systems in the body that involve sensory inputs, like touch or vision, and motor responses, like movement.

• Development of large and small muscles: referencing the growth and coordination of different muscle groups.

  • Gross motor skills: physical abilities that use the body’s large muscles, like walking or bending over.

  • Fine motor skills: pieces of movement involving small muscle groups, like in the hands or fingers.

• Visual perception: interpreting and making sense of visual information.

• In-hand manipulation skills

Children should also experience pre-writing skills, called mark making, before learning to trace letters. This might begin as early as 12 months old and continue until ages 2-3 when children start to draw shapes and lines. Mark making is using any writing device (a marker, crayon, pencil, or pen) to color, draw lines, and shapes, which can encourage and even inspire students to want to write.

Pencil Grip Through the Ages

Providing opportunities for children to draw and color with crayons, markers, pens, pencils or any other type of writing utensil will assist in developmentally preparing the child to hold a pencil. At first, when children engage with writing utensils, they will often grasp the writing tool with their entire hand. This typically happens around 18 months (about 1 and a half years) to three years old. Being able to isolate fingers from the palm, like one does when holding a pencil correctly, requires fine motor control. Around 2-3 years old children’s grip is still developing.

By the time children are in preschool, around ages 3-4, they are developmentally ready to learn how to properly hold a pencil. Teaching grip helps students gain control over isolating their fingers to create a proper pencil grasp. A good pencil grip allows the fingers to move efficiently with the tip of the pencil. A mature pencil grip should not involve frequent movement of the wrist, whole hand, or arm. Increased movement in these areas creates a greater opportunity for fatigue, which should be avoided. A pencil grip where fingers are close to the point of the pencil and have more control sets children up to write neatly.

Teaching children the correct form is important because we want to set students up for success in their writing journey. If bad habits, like poor pencil grip, arise it can cause incorrect letter formation, spelling difficulties, delayed writing proficiency, lack of confidence, and even create hardships in reading and writing fluency.

Direct Instruction is Non-negotiable

Learning to write is about precision, not perfection. It takes time, patience, and positive reinforcement. Students need direct handwriting instruction to develop correct handwriting habits. Modeling letter formation is also crucial when teaching handwriting. Multisensory activities like verbally explaining the basic strokes and order that students are going to use for each letter and providing a visual example of where the letter should be positioned on the lines gives students something to look at and compare their letters too while they are learning and practicing. Visually drawing the letter on a white board or smart board increases student's ability to learn positive handwriting techniques. These aspects of letter formation are incorporated into Countdown and Blast through Really Great Handwriting.

Before grasping their pencil, students need to grasp what is being asked of them, creating a preparedness for when they are ready to learn and practice.

Language and Letter Formation

Language plays a large role in handwriting; children need to be able to identify letters before writing them. If a child can’t imagine the letter, or say it, they are going to struggle to write it. Providing exposure to letters prior to teaching handwriting will help a smooth transition to familiarizing the child with the sound and shape of the letters they are learning.

Starting with basic strokes is much more approachable than jumping in and teaching 52 letters (26 lower case and 26 uppercase) and 10 numbers. Many children come into their preschool or kindergarten classrooms having learned how to draw a stick figure and if they can successfully draw a stick figure, they are already doing the basic strokes required for manuscript letter formation.

Starting with lines and shapes is an approachable gateway to starting letter formation. These strokes can then be combined to form letters.

Teaching children to write by hand is about more than just memorizing letter formations. Many senses are activated when writing something by hand. The brain sees the written symbol, recognizes them as letters, sounds them out, then puts the letters together to create words. Writing is a multisensory activity that builds the connections between letters and sounds.

Reading and handwriting are closely connected. When children write letters by hand, they are also learning to recognize them visually. If children engage with books, they can also make a visual connection to the letters they are learning to write because they have seen them before.

Student Reflection is Key

Learning is a process that takes time and practice. Self-reflection encourages the learning process because students are completing their work, then going back and evaluating how they did. This helps establish that evaluation is more than “good” or “bad”, and isn’t just done by a teacher, rather it instills that students are able to acknowledge what they are doing well and what they are having a difficult time with. Learning to write will not happen overnight, it will take years to hone proper writing skills but providing a positive space to identify adjustments as students learn and continue to practice then self-reflection becomes normalized.

Modeling self-evaluation can be done with the I do, we do, you do technique. The teacher could write a line of the same letter, with 6-8 examples, (including tracing and practicing). Then they can review each letter with the class acknowledging what looks like the example and what doesn’t. Asking and answering questions like “is this letter in the lines?” or “does my top to bottom line look slanted?” Modeling like this shows students that learning doesn’t mean perfection. Rather, it teaches students that they can identify if they are meeting the criteria with the autonomy to identify what they did well while acknowledging challenges they had. This reflection is positive because it creates an environment for students to turn struggles into strengths based off their own assessment.

Brigance - 5c

Prints first and last name

Name Writing

Provide students name cards with their first and last names. Teach them how to reference the card to write their first and last name from left to right with a space between the names.

Refer to the link above for other instructional strategies to teach students “The letters in this order make the name _______.”