Shows how children begin to write.

1. By: Heather Nowak

2.  Hands::
◦ Writing requires strength and dexterity in our hands.
Strength and dexterity depend on how we use the small
muscles in our hands.

3.  Forearms:
◦ Children need to develop the muscles in their forearms to
provide strength and stability
◦ Children must coordinate and use both the hand and
forearm muscles to do things such as holding and using
a pencil, using scissors, handling coins and using various
utensils for eating.

4.  Fingers:
◦ The thumb, index and middle fingers carry out the skilled
movements in writing and other intricate activities, while
the ring and baby fingers provide stability and increase
strength.

5.  Brain:
◦ Hand-eye coordination and sensory input are necessary
in the writing process.
◦ The brain must coordinate sensations with what we see
so that we can make small changes for precise
coordination and muscle control.

6.  Change how activities are done to encourage
finger use
 Lace large beads with strings
 Play with finger puppets and spinning tops.
 Twist caps onto small bottles or tubes of
toothpaste with one hand

7.  Draw and scribble
 Roll, throw and catch large-sized balls
 Hide pennies, beads or other small objects in
Play-Doh, sand or rice tubs for your child to find.
 Draw shapes and lines on sandpaper or carpet
squares.

8.  Make lines, shapes and letters
by finger painting or
painting with shaving cream
 Play shape and letter
matching or recognition games.

9.  Stage 1 (1 year old)
◦ Crinkles paper
◦ Bangs crayons or other writing utensils on paper

10.  Stage 2 (1-2 years old)
◦ Randomly scribbles
◦ Spontaneously scribbles
in vertical/horizontal
or circular directions
◦ Paint with whole arm movements

11.  Stage 3 (2-3 years old)
◦ Imitates a horizontal line
◦ Imitates a vertical line
◦ Imitates a circle
◦ Holds crayon with thumb and fingers instead of fist
◦ Paint with wrist action, rather than whole arm
movements

12.  Stage 4 (3-4 years old)
◦ Imitates a cross
◦ Imitates a right/left diagonal
◦ Imitates a square
◦ put lines together to draw people

13.  Stage 5 (4-5 years old)
◦ Traces a line
◦ Imitates a triangle
◦ Imitates an X
◦ Grasps pencil in writing position
◦ color within the lines of the
picture
◦ Print a few capital letters
◦ practice writing first name

14.  Stage 6 (5-6 years old)
◦ demonstrate how simple shapes
can be put together to make
drawings of people, animals
and objects
◦ by age 6, most children have
mastered the basic
strokes needed to form
letters and numbers

15. http://www.therapystreetforkids.com/PreWritingSkills.htm
http://yourcharlotteschools.net/documents/students/Hand
http://www.caot.ca/default.asp?pageid=3711