3 Easy Steps To Improve Your Child’s Handwriting

Are you unable to understand what your child writes? Don’t worry if your child isn’t a calligraphy genius. Instead, you can focus on making your child’s scribbles into beautiful fine writing.

Handwriting is one of the most important fine motor skills your child needs to develop. Your child is not just putting the pencil to the paper. Their brain is also telling them what to write, how to form the words, and their eyes tracing the outline of the words.

Here is how you can improve your child’s handwriting:

1.     Correct Pencil Grasp

At the age of 6, your child develops the dynamic tripod grasp, the ideal pencil grip for handwriting. If a child is not taught this early on, they will struggle with neat handwriting in the coming years.

• Teach your child to hold the pencil between the thumb and the index finger. Ask them to use their middle finger for support. The pencil should rest on the bridge between the thumb and index finger.
• The grip should be firm but not tight.
• You can also give your child a pencil grips to teach them how to hold the pencil correctly.

2.     Getting the Letter Proportions Right

Your child may have poor handwriting because they do not understand the alphabet proportions. To correct the proportions of their letters here is what you can do:

• Show your child how to hang their g’s and y’s to the last line.
• Ask them to trace their letters on the dotted alphabets in a primary composition book.
• Show your child how capital letters are bigger while lower-case letters are half the size.

3.     Letting Them Write at the Right Pace

Some kids can finish their writing task in just a few minutes while others may take a long time. If you pressurise your child to finish quickly, he or she may lose interest in writing. Instead, set a timeline for your child and ask them to pace their writing.

A Few Other Things to Consider to Improve Your Child’s Handwriting

• Improve Dexterity: To write well, your child needs to make their fingers strong and nimble. To do that, they should take part in activities like playing with sand and dough, colouring, stringing beads and cutting paper. You can also teach them how to eat using spoons and forks.

 

• Make Practice Fun: If you simply give your child some words to copy, they will soon become tired of them. Instead, try to engage them in some word games like hangman, word puzzles, connecting the dots. You can also encourage them to write on fun surfaces like a foggy window, or a mud patch.

 

• Encourage Reading: Reading helps improve your child’s handwriting. Seeing neatly typed words helps the child memorise the letters. It also gives them the chance to copy those neat letters in their handwriting.

Good handwriting takes practice. This is your child’s formative years and pressurising them to excel at it may cause more harm than good. Instead, make this learning process fun and interesting. This way, your child can enjoy this experience and look forward to new ones.