Has your child’s teacher advised extra handwriting practice is needed?
Are you concerned that the more handwriting your child does the less happy they become?
Does your child say their hand hurts when writing?
Kids Handwriting Practice 6 to7 years:
This is what the professionals do
Want to teach your child handwriting just like a handwriting expert?
In this article, we will look at five quick and important handwriting strategies that you can do with your child
Handwriting practice at this age is all about consolidating previous skills.
Your child should be able to review their own work. Noticing the good, the bad and the ugly.
They should look at:
- Have a they good pencil grip?
- Have the words spaces between them?
- Are their words on a line?
- Are the letters formed accurately?
At your child’s school handwriting practice is daily but for only 15 minutes. There may also be talk of handwriting rewards or licenses. These are motivational tools to help children write.
The real difficulty is that kids notice differences
They notice what their best friend can do. They notice what their second-best friend can do. And they notice what they can’t do. This can be a very demotivating.
It is essential that we help.
Children need to feel confident about how they write.
How handwriting practice at home, can you improve your kids handwriting?
Hand exercises
This is very important. Hand exercises relieve muscle tension. The hand continues to develop up until the age of 6 to 7 years. As a child increases the amount of handwriting they do. They can often say their hand hurts. This is due to the extra fine motor movements that they are making.
Use a highlighter to help show your child spaces
Colour in the gaps between the letters and the words. This will help your child visually see that letter spaces need to be smaller than words spaces. Highlighter pens can also help a child write on the line.
Maze puzzles
These are great at helping to develop eye-hand coordination skills. Furthermore it develops pencil control and accuracy. Whilst your child is completing a maze they are developing essential hand skills.
Encourage
Boost. Praise. Handwriting is a difficult skill. Time is needed to learn it. Encourage writing in your home by asking your child to write a ‘to do’ list for you. Or write little notes of encouragement and ask for notes back of what went well today.
Help your child reflect on their work
Finally this is a technique that is used at school. You could use words such as good, great, not so good. Or ask them to mark themselves out of 10. Be advised, often they will undermark their skills if marking out of 10.
Mistakes (what not to do when doing handwriting practice with your child)
Guideless
Your child still needs help with letter formations. Having start and stop points is not enough. They will need guide arrows to help them move their pencil to write direction.
Leaning on the table
Sometimes this is thought of as tiredness. But it can also be a sign of reduced core muscle strength. Writing on a sloping board or an inverted A4 folder will help make handwriting less tiring.
Using a pencil grip
Pencil grips do not always help with the finger position when writing. Your child needs a gap between their thumb and first finger. Otherwise round letters are difficult to draw. Some pencil grips do not encourage this gap, making them useless.
Let me tell you about Charlie
Charlie had always been a keen worker. Keen to learn, keen to ask questions and keen to try. However, Charlie found handwriting difficult.
He was noticing that his friends were able to do their work with ease. Yet Charlie seemed to be the last one to finish his work. He told his Mum that his hand hurt and handwriting made him tired.
When writing Charlie would lean on the table. And after a few minutes of holding a pencil he would wiggle his fingers. He did this to get the blood flowing back into his hands.
Charlie was given a sloping board to use when writing. He was advised to do core strength muscle activities e.g. press ups and doing a superman pose. Charlie also changed his pencil grip to a pencil that was ergonomically designed to help him write.
All these ideas helped Charlie improve his handwriting. He is no longer the last to complete his work.
To summarise kids handwriting practice 6 to 7 years is all about:
Between the ages of six and seven years old handwriting practice is about consolidating what has already been taught.
It is about being able to hold a pencil without your hand hurting. Clearly form letters in the correct direction. And place spaces between words.
Children at this age are very aware of what they can and cannot do. It is important that we do not let handwriting become a demotivating factor for them.
Get Set Write Club – Monthly Handwriting Club
Mum’s, Dad’s, Guardian’s – let me make an educated guess, you’re wondering how to help your child in overcoming one or more of the most common writing problems.
A problem such as … an awkward pencil grip / Forming letters incorrectly / Painful hands / Unable to write quickly / Illegible writing / A general disinterest in writing
Whatever your child’s writing problem, this club is the answer.
Print & go resources!
Welcome to a world of resources for working alongside your child. You’ll start by identifying and understanding what your child really needs to focus on, and be signposted to the right videos, worksheets and workbooks to take on those stubborn road blocks that previously stood in the way of progress.
New resources are added every month to keep your child engaged with fresh, exciting challenges; and as a parent, you also have a monthly Q&A session to look forward to for your most pressing questions.
Like hundreds of other kids, your child will come on in leaps and bounds (the effectiveness of my unique handwriting font is the reason why I’ve been nominated for awards).