When Do Kids Learn How To Write

When should I teach my child to write their name?

For Children, writing their ain proper noun is a huge milestone. They can place themselves, they can identify their holding and… if they are annihilation similar most kids, they tin graffiti it on tables, walls, toys and beds and then blatantly deny information technology to your face!

But even nosotros, as parents, feel this sense of achievement when our child can write their name, it's one of the first literacy milestones they make and at that place is a big stigma effectually it…

Just did yous know we can actually hinder the process if we teach them to write their name earlier they are prepare!

The norms for learning to write your proper noun differ significantly amongst our young people and we demand to acknowledge this equally every child develops at a dissimilar rate! Historic period is non the deciding gene for knowing if your child is prepare to write. There are developmental milestones that aide the process – things like midline crossing, visual perception skills (including retentiveness), fine motor skills, agreement the concepts of letters and functional gross motor skills all demand to be at a certain level to be able to learn writing.

Some children will learn to write their proper name when they are 2 or 3 (this is rare, don't feel like your three twelvemonth erstwhile should exist able to write their proper name) while others are however having difficulty when they are in year 1 (this is something that I would certainly be working on, but I encounter it oftentimes enough to know its mutual).

A general rule of thumb is that by the time they starting time kindergarten we would LIKE children to be able to:

Identify their name (detect it amid others, fifty-fifty similarly spelt names) and
Write their name and so that adults can recognise it – It doesn't have to have correct alphabetic character formation (although that helps) and information technology doesn't have to be written on a line or anything formal similar that (in fact I would encourage them not to take a line to write on initially – just a blank folio).

What happens if they learn likewise immature?

If a child is encouraged to write before they are set up you volition often find:

They write in private vertical and horizontal lines to form the letters they see rather than using curved and intersecting lines.
Due to this, letter formation habits are formed incorrectly and bad habits have started. Keep in heed that the longer a kid writes for with incorrect letter formations the harder it is to correct and in the long term their writing is harder to read.
When a task is hard for a kid they oftentimes give upward – so if a kid isn't gear up to write and they find information technology hard,they volition terminate up non liking writing and the task will have a bad stigma in their heed!
A child needs to have advisable 'visual perception' skills in gild to perceive the letters they are writing – this comes with development, its not something parents can rush! otherwise yous get reversals or flipped letters (vertically flipped.)
But please note letter of the alphabet reversals are typical up until the age of 7.

How exercise I know when my child is ready to learn to write?

Children will be ready at different times and we demand to take that (My twin boys, who had exactly the same exposure and upbringing had nigh 5 months between the time the first twin was set and the second twin was set up to learn to write.) Generally speaking – children tend to let you lot know when they are ready here are a few clues:

Their drawings start to really look similar what they mean to draw (not just random marks and scribbles)
They can copy bones lines (vertical, horizontal and sometimes diagonal),
They can copy basic shapes (circle, foursquare, cross and sometimes triangle) with some resemblance.
They become interested in letters and volition verbalise the alphabetic character names and/or sounds or enquire questions nearly letters and numbers they encounter in their surroundings.
They orientate pictures the correct way, if your child is handing you pictures upside downwards they are not ready for writing (this is common in children who are 2 and iii, and then don't panic, just don't showtime writing withal.)
They tin differentiate betwixt similar letters like b,d,p,q. When a kid can identify that a stick and a brawl at the top (p) is unlike to when there is a stick and a ball at the bottom (b) this is a good indication that their trunk awareness and agreement of positioning are developing set up for writing.
Only please note letter reversals are typical up until the age of 7.

What should I do if my child is taught too early past mistake?

If these occur, stop the procedure and accept a step to the side – depending on your child'southward age there are unlike strategies you can employ:

Go back to practicing alphabetic character formations in isolation, just i letter at a time.
Then put them back into their proper name and other words
Stay at-home, don't make them stressed virtually the process
Rubbing their piece of work out all the time doesn't actually aid very much it may in fact hinder the process, keep their mistakes there for them to see then they can correct them.
Ask your teacher for ideas
Seek out an Occupational Therapist for ideas!

How do I help my child get ready to write?

As with most OT skills Fine Motor skills are essential for holding a pencil and writing.

E'er work on your kid'south fine motor skills first before asking them to control the pencil. Fine motor games such every bit threading, playdoh, coin manipulation, posting (coins in a coin box), pegs in a peg board, independent tool use (forks, spoons, kid safety knives, kids hammer etc).

However, besides equally fine motor skills we as well crave a lot of gross motor skills too! I like to telephone call these skills 'functional gross motor skills' as they are essential for learning. Activities like climbing a tree, climbing on play equipment, ball skills – throwing, catching, bouncing, rolling etc, residual games, coytes, running with skill, skipping and post-obit basic body movements are all smashing activities.

If you lot experience your child is falling behind in terms of their evolution functional evolution, talk to our OT squad!
We are always here to help

Now, the next step is really teaching them to write it – stay tuned for the second office of this weblog coming soon!