Kids aren’t able to write well until they have developed good fine-motor skills. Fortunately, these skills improve easily with lots of practice. Use the following activities to help your young child develop the precision, balance, and hand-eye coordination that are needed to perform the fine-motor skills used in handwriting:
- Give your child clay or play-dough to play with to strengthen the major muscles used in handwriting.
- Encourage her to play with Legos, miniature cars, small blocks, action figures, and other small toys.
- Do puzzles with your child.
- Provide creative art projects that involve using crayons, marking pens, scissors, and finger paints, as well as tearing paper.
- Play games with your child that involve the handling of cards and small game pieces.
- Ask your child to sort collections of loose coins into stacks of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.
- Help your child learn to manage such everyday skills as tying and lacing his shoes and buttoning his clothes. Remember, every child has a different timetable in acquiring the fine-motor skills needed for handwriting. The more your child uses her fingers in activities, the sooner she will acquire these skills.
