Making Handwriting fun!
One of my favourite things to do with children is to support them to develop their handwriting skills. I often meet young people who have struggled to consolidate the basic skills of this complicated activity. This can then impact their confidence and self esteem and can be a barrier for them in their learning.
When handwriting is not an automatic skill, a child needs to use brain power to consider how to form their letters, what size they should be, how to space and place them on the writing line etc. All this on top of constructing the sentence itself, considering correct spelling, punctuation and grammar. After all this additional effort, the child’s handwriting may not appear as you would like it to and certainly does not reflect the amount of effort they have put into it. This can be demoralising and might affect their motivation for writing.
In my Occupational Therapy sessions, I work hard to discover and then use individual interests of the young people I work with. This might lead to a project on dinosaurs or the creation of a Captain Underpants comic strip.
I am also mindful of the approach I choose with each child. I ask myself whether this young person prefers a playful approach with silly voices and role playing. Or do they need me to be quiet, structured and set specific expectations? Whilst this varies during the course of our time together, what is vital is the relationship I develop with the young person, so that we can face challenges together productively and overcome them. I will often encounter resistance to writing, borne of many experiences of challenge and disappointment. We have to get to a place where I can be trusted and allowed to support them to make the necessary changes. Resistance can come in many forms, distraction and avoidance being two I see very often.
Making handwriting fun can be challenging, so I find that using a multisensory approach can help to embed handwriting principles in a broader way than simply sitting down and writing can. Some activities I use include the following:
Rolling long and short sausages from play doh and then using these to make letters: placing the pieces in the same order that the pencil strokes would make.
Writing in the air using whole arm movements or a ribbon on a stick.
Letters in sand trays.
Transparent letters that need orientating correctly and maybe matching these with their capital letter partners hidden around the room (to add movement to the activity).
Games on a whiteboard, like 3-letter hangman, encourage participation in an undaunting way and opens up the conversation about letter formations. Letters can then be practised and erased with ease, and effort is always praised and celebrated.
Regular practice (little and often!) and the reinforcement of correct letter formation principles (using spatial directions), in my experience, leads to success. The confidence gained by this mastery can be transformative for a child’s participation and self confidence.
Rachel White
Children’s Occupational Therapist