Handwriting in Preschool is Simply Child's Play

[Katherine Collmer]

I have some very favorite things that I would simply roll over and cry if I lost.  

No, they are not really material items.  They are website links.  Yes!  Since I've become a web junkie, I've found some amazing information tucked inside some of those links and I go back time and time again to pick them up and share them with others.  And the one that tops my list is the Florida International University’s College of Education's video and article about the link between good handwriting and good grades.  In it, Laura Dinehart, an assistant professor at FIU reported findings of a study of 4-year-olds that found that children who demonstrated strong handwriting skills in pre-k scored in the 59th percentile on the Reading SAT in second grade (just above average) and in the 62nd percentile on the Math SAT.  However, children who demonstrated poor fine motor writing skills in pre-k scored in the 38th percentile on the Reading SAT and in the 37th percentile on the Math SAT.  Those students that did well in pre-k fine motor writing tasks achieved B averages in second grade, while those who did not, achieved C averages.  Now, I don't know about you, but that information earns an A+ grade for me!

Whenever I find myself quoting or sharing that link, I find myself returning to the same conclusion that I've been reaching for years now:  handwriting mastery begins before the introduction of the pencil!!!  Infants, babies, toddlers and preschoolers are all playing around with handwriting without even a notion that someday they will be writing their grandmom a letter or creating the next great novel.  They are clutching crayons, mashing play dough, pounding on Don't Break the Ice, and putting together puzzles with reckless abandon!  They aren't worrying about pencils and paper and worksheets and writing book reports.  They are just having fun!  But, truth be told, they are working hard at building those very precious foundational skills that will pave the way for the mastery of handwriting...and assist them in their academic success.

 

Fine motor development travels through many avenues –

grasping, manipulating and eye-hand coordination. 

As a child learns about parts and discovers shapes and forms, she is developing the memory storage and retrieval skills that she will need for fluid and efficient handwriting skills.  As she manipulates the pieces of a toy or game, she is beginning to understand how they fit to make a whole.  Just as she twists and turns and snaps together the cubes to make a tower, she will move and turn and connect the shapes and forms that create a letter of the alphabet.  Letter recognition is developed through the breakdown of each letter into parts and manipulating them in order to make them represent a recognizable symbol.  And there is no ground more fertile for the development of these essential skills than the playground.

 Play provides the four basic components for the mastery of handwriting skills.  Movement, vision, sensory and cognitive stimulation are the cornerstones for learning.  Guided free-play, where the play options are set out that match the skills that we are encouraging a child to learn, provides a venue for exploration, creativity and adaptation that results in learning.  Play.   It’s as simple as that.  Rushing children to the desk or the pencil drawer robs them of the essential time that they need for play.  In fact, play is an important learning tool for children of all ages.  However, the Gesell Institute of Child Development has shared statistics that demonstrate that playtime is in peril.  They tell us that “In 1981, a typical school-aged child in the US had 40% of her time open for play.  In 1997, she had 25%.”  And with the push for preschool education, it would be sad to see 3-5 year old children practicing their handwriting skills before they’ve had the opportunity to play with them first!

Scribbling should be encouraged.  Making marks and creating drawings that tell a story should take priority over letter formations.  Communicating through art and “talking” with shapes and colors provides a more age-appropriate learning experience than attempting to guide preschoolers toward writing their name.  Language is the “communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary signals…one that includes rules for combining its components, such as words."  The mixture of shapes that a child comes up with, as well as his use of space, leads to his ability to learn to manipulate circles and lines into letters, letters into words and words into a message.  Scribbling begins this entire process. 

 Let me leave you with a quote by Friedrich Froebel, the founder of the concept of Kindergarten: 

 "That which follows is always conditioned upon that which goes before.”

 And that’s how it is with handwriting.  Play provides the conditioning that leads to handwriting mastery. 

So, go ahead!  Play! 

Katherine

Katherine J. Collmer, M.Ed., OTR/L, is a pediatric occupational therapist who specializes in the assessment and remediation of children’s handwriting skills.  She owns and operates a clinic in Sandwich, MA, USA, and publishes a website and blog (www.handwritingwithkatherine.com) with handwriting information and tips.

 

[Sixty Second Parent]

Great post Katharine and I agree that play is in peril in early childhood education - my daughter goes to a waldorf school and she did plenty of finger knitting and wax modeling and crayon drawing before she was given pencils at school in Grade 2.

On the other hand at home (before she went to preschool) she had an interest writing from an early age and would form letters from age 3 - but this was still in the context of play - she would 'write' letters to the fairies - most of the words in her letters were just marks but the odd letter would emerge.

Thanks for sharing this information and I look forward to more posts from you.

Michelle

[Katherine Collmer]

Michelle, Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of Sixty Second Parent!  It is wonderful that your daughter had an interest in writing at the age of 3.  Her desire to "make her mark" and to communicate through those marks was her first step toward handwriting mastery.  And I think that when a child guides herself toward learning letters and has the capability to do so, no matter where she is in the structure of developmental milestones, then we must "play along!"

 I certainly will be an active participant on your site and I, too, look forward to lots of sharing and learning.

Katherine

[Barbara Smith]

Katherine,

Thanks for a wonderful post. I couldn't have said it better :-)

Barbara

[Katherine Collmer]

Thanks, Barbara!  That's an honor coming from you!  And thanks for reading!