[vc_row padding_top_multiplier=”” rc_link_color=”primary-1″ rc_link_hover_color=”primary-6″][vc_column][crocal_title heading_tag=”h2″ heading=”h5″ margin_bottom=”20px”]Handwriting is a precursor for learning. It helps stimulate cerebral activity and development in the early years.
[/crocal_title][vc_column_text]While National Stationery Week might not be something that’s a priority in everybody’s annual calendars (guilty), it does give us a chance to look at an often overlooked skill that occurs up and down the country in every single nursery: handwriting. Surprisingly, there isn’t too much guidance for nursery practitioners on this. Children are taught how to grip a pen or pencil and bar a few handwriting activities, away they go. We think handwriting deserves a bit more attention!
Why Should I Teach Handwriting in EYFS?
The National Strategies guide to developing handwriting points to the skills children will need to develop in order to acquire a fluent handwriting style:
- Good gross and fine motor skills
- A recognition of pattern
- A language to talk about shapes and movements
It’s a skill that if developed properly can benefit a child into adulthood and throughout the rest of their lives. Not having to concentrate on too much handwriting and being able to write effortlessly allows children to focus more deeply on the subject at hand too, meaning the benefits go far beyond having an aesthetically pleasing page of work and actually allow for greater learning. That’s right, handwriting is an asset to learning!
Where Do I Start?
What we want to do is create a desire for children to want to write. This has to be at the forefront of any planning that goes into supporting emergent writing in the EYFS. Having a space where little ones feel comfortable to scribble is a good start but you’ll also want to ensure that there is an abundance of materials for them to use both inside and outside of the setting. Children should also be exposed to adults writing things down and frequently seeing adults model writing, which will help children understand the process of why we write. Here’s a handy guide to children’s early writing which we highly recommend.
Write don’t Type
We know that the world is becoming more digitised every day. We’re sure this has changed how things work in your nursery too. Children are fluent with technology in a way that many adults aren’t and never will be. But an appreciation of the written word remains fundamental for their development and should be nurtured as much as possible in early learning.
The brain is engaged slightly differently when we write by hand instead of touching a screen. Writing is proven to improve memory, with children (and adults) retaining more information when processing it using paper rather than a tablet. Children who find the physical act of writing something hard to grasp are unlikely to develop into confident writers, so the importance of developing this skill in EYFS really can’t be overstated. The physical act of handwriting is also closely linked to increased vocabulary, more accurate spelling and greater overall reading development.
Developing Gross Motor Movements
At the very start you might want to encourage your little ones to skywrite with both hands, allowing them to grasp the concept of using their hands to write and keeping them as engaged as possible. They can move from making patterns and letters in the air to writing on each other’s backs with their fingers. You might then want to add letters and words to the sand tray to explore and recreate using their fingers or paint brushes. All of these activities will keep them entertained and develop gross motor movements simultaneously.
Developing Fine Motor Movements
As your children begin to develop you’ll want to add new activities to their daily routine. Developing the pincer movement (picking up an object with tweezers, for instance), using clay and play dough to strengthen their fingers, and introducing thick paint brushes to paint walls or fences will all prove useful here. Of course, these activities are to be enjoyed for what they are; they are not meant to be precursors to only writing!
Putting Pen to Paper
While developing handwriting might sound like quite a formal, grown-up task it’s important to keep the task as fun as possible. Fluency of movement is the most important thing here and this allows for children to experiment with shapes and letter formations. It’s also worth remembering that staff needn’t be daunted by this undertaking either. In early years settings handwriting guidance isn’t something that needs to be rigidly taught each day, but can be interwoven into experiences and conversations throughout the day. Brief pointers and encouraging feedback are things that can be incorporated into most days without causing any disruption. What’s important is that children see a value and purpose for writing and are then nurtured as they go.
Introducing Handwriting
There is an abundance of online resources that will steer you in the right direction regarding the basics of handwriting in the early years that we’ve found particularly helpful. Once it comes to writing on the page, you’ll want to familiarize your staff with these basic grips of how a child may hold a pencil and then introduce this to your children. Be sure to watch out for children gripping the pencil too tightly as this will tire them out and prevent them developing a free-flowing movement.
Once the children are comfortable with their grips and making out each letter of the alphabet then they may feel comfortable joining words together such as at, am, it, in and up. This process will take a little time but there are huge rewards to be had here and each milestone a child achieves should be celebrated. They’re learning more through these activities than they know and it’s something children, parents and staff can all take great pride in.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
