Using lined paper is helpful, as is giving students a variety of visual aids: arrow cues for stroke direction, dots for starting points, dotted letters for tracing, etc. The letters b , d , p , and q are often confused by younger students. Teaching the correct formation of these letters can help diminish the confusion, as they have different starting points— b , for instance, starts from the top, whereas d starts in the middle.
Internalizing the motor patterns for these letters can help make recognition more automatic. Legibility: An important factor impacting legibility is spacing between words.
Pacing: If students are using an appropriate pencil grasp and forming letters correctly, that will often solve any pacing challenges. Another factor to consider when looking at pacing is the press: Students should not be pressing the pencil down on the paper too hard as they write because doing so can lead to writing fatigue and a greatly reduced rate of letter production.
But if they press too lightly, it can be a sign of weak muscles or inappropriate pencil grasp. Encourage students to write with a variety of materials markers, short pencils, crayons, erasable markers on whiteboards to help them adjust how hard they press.
Handwriting in early childhood education: Current research and future implications. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 15 1 , Engel, C. When teaching children to write cursive letters, forming lines correctly is important for carryover and legibility.
Other important techniques for cursive letter formation include these strategies:. Teaching cursive letter formation requires a different order to teach letters.
Check out this resource for cursive letter order based on pencil control and establishing a motor plan for smooth cursive lines. You can print off a PDF of the cursive letter order, too. These are writing tips to teach letters as part of a handwriting curriculum based on an individualized approach to handwriting.
Check out some of our favorites! Here are more tips for teaching kids to write. This is a good read because we talk about why starting letters at the top is important as well as the developmental benefit of teaching upper case letters before teaching lowercase letters. So often, we see kids learn uppercase and lowercase letters at the same time. In actuality, kids are developmentally capable of learning upper case letters first due to the consistent starting point upper case letters all start at the top!
Read more about this by clicking the link above. Handwriting strategies that improve pencil control, specifically changes in direction improve legibility. This quick activity can help kids work on the pencil control needed for writing letters.
Printed letters have many direction changes. Controlled pencil strokes can be a big help in legible handwriting. For some kids, writing is a hassle and they absolutely HATE to write. Those kiddos will love these writing activities. Use a timer to work on letter formation , while focusing on specific details such as line accuracy.
Use the tips in our handwriting club to work on letter formation, placement, and accuracy along with the fun of a group. Kids can practice letter formation by sliding a sheet of paper into a plastic gallon-sized bag and having kids write on top of letters with colored dry erase markers. Use a small bit of paper towel to erase the letters in the correct formation for another practice run.
Many of the handwriting activities below offer the opportunity for practicing letter formation using finger tracing. The techniques can be used in sensory bins, in sensory bags, on sandpaper, or on textured surfaces. Finger tracing is a great strategy for early writers, for teaching pre-writing lines and shapes in preschool and toddler years, and for encouraging carryover of diagonal lines, jumping lines, and curves needed for form letters.
Try a few of these finger tracing techniques to incorporate the tactile system into letter formation:.
Multi-sensory handwriting strategies use the senses and kinesthetic feedback to help kids form a motor plan to form letters. Multi-sensory writing includes sensory writing trays, writing in shaving cream, forming letters with play dough. Fill a low tray such as the lid of a food storage container with dish soap and ask students to write letters using their index finger.
This is a great fine motor activity as well as a multi-sensory strategy for writing. Offering a resistive surface provides kinesthetic feedback when learning letters. Use a sheet of sandpaper under paper to work on letter formation of the alphabet, especially when practicing high-frequency letters or letters that are commonly reversed.
Slime and Letter Beads- Work on letter formation using slime and letter beads! Kids can find the beads and then practice writing that letter.
This fizzy sensory letter activity uses DIY baking soda play dough and a chemical reaction to work on letters that kids will love. Form the letters with dough and then paint them with vinegar in correct formation to practice while enjoying the sensory feedback.
Letter cookie cutters are a great way to practice letter formation. Here is an easy writing tray using only colored rice and a colorful background. Kids can work on finger isolation and separation of the sides of the hand by working letters with their index finger. Be sure to check out all of these writing tray ideas, too.
Create a sensory memory game that also allows kids to trace letters on the bottom of the tray. Take letter learning outdoors with this nature letter formation activity. Use these approaches to forming lowercase letters. These easy tips to teach kids how to write use fun and easy sensory activities that teach alphabet letter formation.
Teach letters with resistive feedback using pushpins and a recycled container. Another hands-on approach with fine motor work is this pegboard letter activity. Cotton Swab Letters — Use cotton swabs with colorful sensory additions to work on letter formation.
Teach letters in teletherapy with this interactive occupational therapy slide deck that helps kids with letter formation through gross motor, fine motor, and sensory activities. Use this occupational therapy slide deck to work on strait line letters with kids. Use the slides as an outline for occupational therapy interventions in therapy sessions, while working on letter formation.
Our alphabet exercise slide deck offers kids a chance to move with letter-themed gross motor exercises AND work on letter formation by moving the interactive portion of these free Google slide deck.
This OT resource is perfect for virtual therapy sessions. This Scribble Day OT slide deck is perfect for a fun occupational therapy teletherapy session.
Work through the slides and address letter formation as well as other areas including fine and gross motor activities, motor planning, and more. These monster theme slides are great for occupational therapy sessions because they use a fun theme to work on letter formation as well as other underlying areas that impact handwriting. Use this space theme OT slide deck to work on letter formation using interactive slides that help kids by adding movement in a digital format.
Perfect for occupational therapy virtual sessions. Another way to work on the motor planning needed for handwriting is to use various mediums for writing, such as carpet squares.
We used small carpet fragments and chalk to write letters. Fill a low tray with watered-down slime. We used the eraser end of a pencil to form letters but you could use a fingertip too. This handwriting trick uses a foam sheet to work on pencil pressure when writing letters, but it offers a great tactile feedback through the hands that allow kids to build a motor plan when working on letter formation.
This is a great way to use sensory input to help kids with learning to write letters. Kids often benefit from a visual cue when it comes to letter formation, especially with letters that are commonly reversed. Visual spatial relations impact handwriting because letter formation depends on placement between lines, letter sizing, and accuracy of letter formation in a given space.
This resource will give you tips and strategies to impact visual spatial skills in a way that makes a huge difference in legibility of written work.
These LEGO letter stamps are a fantastically sensory and motor activity that allows kids to focus on letter parts that make up each letter while working on fine motor work in a way that is fun and builds accuracy with letter accuracy and awareness. Adding gross motor, motor planning, coordination, bilateral coordination, and crossing midline activities to letter learning is priceless!
These letter exercises combine movement with letter awareness and learning. Use these letter exercises as a warm-up or cooldown to therapy sessions. Or, use them as a classroom or home learning brain break activity!
This letter puzzle activity builds fine motor skills which is essential for pencil control, hand strength, and dexterity needed for manipulating a pencil so kids can accurately form letters. This activity is a powerful sensory and motor activity designed to help kids with letter formation and accuracy. Another amazing fine motor activity for building pencil control and coordination, this in-hand manipulation bead and puzzle activity allows kids to partner letter formation with fine motor skills.
High-Contrast Letter Formation — Use used coffee grounds for a high-contrast writing tray that works on letter formation. This is a great activity for practicing commonly reversed letters.
Letter Formation Resistive Surface — Use a recycled material to work on letter formation with a resistive surface, so that kids gain a motor plan for letter formation. Tracing Letters: Letter Formation Handwriting Practice with Chalk — Use sidewalk chalk and outdoor movement activity to work on letter formation with a rainbow writing activity. Here are more sensory writing activities that cover a variety of sensory strategies. If the pencil is too thin they find it difficult to grasp and control, making the drawing experience unsuccessful, which can lead to frustration and discourage them from trying again.
Vertical drawing and painting surfaces are important in helping young children to develop the wrist strength and flexibility they will need later on to hold a pencil correctly for handwriting. Using plain rather than lined paper is considered best as many children find it less restrictive. Young children due to the stage of their physical development use large movements to draw from the shoulder rather than the wrist which often creates larger shapes and lines.
As their gross and fine motor skills develop so does their pencil grip and ability to draw and write at a small scale, moving more from the elbow and wrist. Young children learn many of these directional pushes, pulls and changes in direction on a much larger scale, long before they pick up a pencil, through playing with cars or pretending to cook.
These handwriting patterns are initially taught through activities such as drawing pictures and patterns in sand, paint and with other writing tools and materials.
These activities are introduced based on large scale movements to help store them in the motor memory to be recalled later when the child is learning to refine their line and shape drawing skills. Then through more focused formal approaches such as worksheet activities as they help a child to experience how writing tools feel when drawing different types of line and shapes, which they may not otherwise use.
Once the pre-handwriting patterns have been mastered a child will have the skill base necessary, and be more confident, to form letters, numbers, symbols and later on the join strokes required for a joined fluid and speedy handwriting style.
Initially learning to form letters is a less formal affair, using a range of media and game type activities e. The important thing is to model and explain how to make the letter shapes with the correct start point, directional flow of the tool, or hand, and finish point. Letters are created through joining lines and curve shapes in a particular way. They have a designated start point and set directional pushes and pulls of the pencil to reach the designated finish point.
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