Teaching handwriting to children – what every teacher must know

 Teaching handwriting to children – what every teacher must know

Handwriting is a complex skill

Handwriting is a skill that is taught in every school. There are many approaches to teaching handwriting. Some schools focus on the cursive first approach. Others teach handwriting alongside phonics. This post will explore the weaknesses of these approaches and tell you the best way to teach handwriting. It will cover:

The complexity of handwriting

Printing vs cursive

The best way to teach handwriting

Teaching Handwriting – it’s complicated!

Handwriting is a very complex task. Moving a pencil to make letters is primarily a motor skill. However, recognising letters is a visual and memory skill. Knowing letter names and sounds relies on hearing, memory and language. Writing words and sentences requires the ability to combine all of these skills.

At its core, writing letters correctly on the page is a motor skill. It requires pencil control, knowledge of the formation pattern and the ability to visually perceive distances. Motor skills require practice to become proficient.

Handwriting is learnt

Handwriting is not a skill that humans are innately born to do. Walking, we naturally learn. General fine motor skills are learnt through play. Anyone who has watched two and three years olds play know that they are forever repeating skills. They open, close, fill, dump and constantly explore with their hands. This repetition improves their skills.

When toddlers pick up a crayon they explore. This exploration might include drawing on the walls and sofa! It then becomes more refined. They draw shapes, they draw people and they draw things. Then, they are taught to write their name.

Handwriting should be taught

The new policy guidance from the National Handwriting Association [NHA] (2019 p. 31) recommends that ‘handwriting skills need to be taught both as a timetabled discrete subject and through ongoing reinforcement of skills in everyday written language activities.’  They suggest that lessons should be focussed, short and at regular intervals, but will be influenced by the age of the children and the class profile.  A daily session of ten minutes is recommended for young children learning letter formations.  For older children, three sessions of 15 – 20 minutes per week may work better.

Early on, there should be a strong focus on letter formations. Sassoon (1995) highlighted that ‘unless the correct point of entry and direction of stroke for each letter is taught, understood and used from the start, it is progressively difficult to alter the wrong movement pattern that is practised and becomes habitual.’

Incorrect formation patterns can make handwriting illegible.  They can slow a child down as they won’t automatically finish a letter on the right side to start the next.  It also makes progressing to joined-up writing more difficult. So, it makes sense to teach correct formations right from the start.

Practice provides an opportunity for teaching handwriting and letter formations correctly.

Teaching handwriting – steps to consider

Before you start – is the child ready to learn to write?

Before you begin to teach handwriting to any child, it is important to check their readiness. Can the child sit up in their chair? Do they have sufficient shoulder stability. Can they hold a pencil? Have they had experiences with colouring and drawing? Can they recognise their letters? We explore these questions further in our post – Five essential motor skills for handwriting success.

Teaching handwriting – pencil control

Pencil control is an essential part of writing letters. Colouring, drawing and pencil worksheets all give children an opportunity to improve their pencil control. Whilst there is some evidence that pencil grasp does not impact long term outcomes, as child’s grasp matures, so does their pencil control. If you need more information on pencil grasp development you can read this post – What does a good pencil grasp look like?

Pre-writing skills

Prior to writing, children need to be able to make their pre-writing shapes. Pre-writing shapes are all of the shapes that form letters. They include the directional movements a child needs to make, like diagonal lines and curves. There are many worksheets that practice these. It is also important to focus on squares and triangles as the ability to create corners is an important developmental step.

These are the pre-writing shapes in order of difficulty: | – o + / square \ x triangle.

Vertical and Horizontal Line, Circle, Straight Cross, Oblique lines Square, Oblique cross, triangle

Letters are made up of combinations of vertical, horizontal, oblique and curved shapes.  Oblique lines (\ /) are much harder to write than straight lines.  The age at which half of children can draw an oblique line is four years and six months (Beery, 2010).

The age where half of children can intersect both oblique lines to form an ‘x’ it is four years and 11 months.  This means that several capital letters and lower case letters ‘k, v, w, x’ are actually outside of the expected age norms for many reception children.  These norms should be considered, especially for children who have names including letters containing oblique lines.

Choose a handwriting scheme

This is where you have a few choices. You can decide whether to teach printing or cursive first. I explore the reason why I think printing is superior below. Secondly, you need to decide whether to teach in phonics or formation groups. I recommend formation groups and explain why below. If you’re looking for further advice, the National Handwriting Association also has written guidance.

Write Rules

Write Rules in GriffinOT’s handwriting scheme.  It is a complete programme with 60 weeks of lesson plans.  It’s designed to teach children letter formations correctly from the start.  And, it includes fine and gross motor activities to support handwriting readiness.

Write Rules is launching in January 2022 – you can learn more and join the waiting list here.