Children & Handwriting

Children and Handwriting

By Isabela Saldanha

Handwriting is such a complex skill that, if it is not fully matured, many children may experience difficulties in this skill. Thus, it can cause frustration and distress to children; also, it can affect children's will to learn how to write. Furthermore, it can cause anxiety for parents and educators who see children struggling to put their ideas on paper.

What is Handwriting?  

Handwriting is defined as a characteristic of each person of writing by hand. According to the dictionary definition, handwriting is considered an art. Therefore, handwriting is considered as individual skills by which individuals express themselves. Complex, isn't it?

To understand how children develop their handwriting skills, we have to understand a set of skills and muscles that need to be fully developed before achieving this goal. To illustrate that, we can think about babies learning how to walk. Babies need to develop their muscles before starting to walk. They need to improve balance and strength to be able to stand; thus, they need to learn how to lift their neck, roll, scoot, and crawl. Babies have to develop all the psychomotricity and musculature necessary to reach the goal of walking. They are not able to give steps before those stages. Their bodies are not mature enough to walk. 

This scenario also happens when children are learning how to write. They need to develop gross and fine motor skills to strengthen the muscles of the palm of their hand. Observe that the hands of babies and young children are soft and puffy; on the other hand, palms of older children and adults are concave. This is a result of the strengthing and development of the palm hand muscle.

Also, there are skills of hand-eye and cognitive coordination involved to understand the symbols of writing. First, children will begin to draw and copy the symbols (letters). Later, they will understand that these symbols have meanings and different symbols have different meanings.

This is only a brief scenario of singularities about how all human beings can mature their handwritring. Therefore, if children do not have good handwriting or have not yet learned how to write their names, it won't be activities of copying names and words that you will make them develop it. You may need to work on those other skills before putting them to write.

Tips for children to strengthen the handwriting muscles

Everyday activities such as folding clothes, using a spoon to eat, and cutting paper, have a big impact not only on your child's handwriting but also on the overall development. I'll post some suggestions for activities below:

• Play-Doh

 

Below is a homemade recipe (tip: keep the play-doh on the refrigerator at night, and the put it out in the morning. It will last much longer).

1 cup of salt
4 cups of flour
3 tablespoons of oil
1 cup and a half of water
Food colouring. You can use drops of essential oils to give a nice smell.
In a bowl, mix the flour and salt. Add the oil, and divide the dough into the number of colours you want. Divide the water into equal portions to the number of colours you want. Add the food colouring to the water. Gradually, add the colored water to the portions of dough. If you prefer, you can add a little more water.

• Rolling Pin- Rolling can strengthen the shoulders, arms, and hands.

• Scissors, loop scissors

• Clothespins, tweezers -  they can be used by the child to pick up small objects, transfer from one place to another, play in the water, and paint (you can use cotton balls or pom-poms).

• Scrutching, ripping, snipping, fringing paper

• Bubble wrap

Those activities are some suggestions. It is important to choose an activity that is appropriate for your child's age and interests. Providing appropriate activities and materials, children can self-educating and fully developing.