Ideas to help your child develop pre-writing skills

Sensory Activities

Sand and water play

Play dough and plasticine

Clay

Model making

Hand and finger paints

Balance

Out door activity- climb, scoot, jump, hop, skip, run etc

Musical statues

Twister

Balance on 1 leg, a small stool, a crack in the pavement

Ball games with large beach ball

Shoulder stability

Crawling on all 4’s and playing on all 4’s e.g. doing puzzles

Obstacle courses on all 4’s - over/under/up/down

Stand at a vertical surface e.g. easel to paint with hands, fingers

Climb on out door play equipment

Carry an object at arms length e.g. egg and spoon race

Pouring water from jug to bucket

Forearm control 

Musical instruments

Clapping games

Wrist control

Mixing and digging

Hand prints - using all parts of hands

Musical instruments

Grasp

Play dough, clay etc- squeeze and use tools

Water play with squeezy bottles

Stamp and print sets

Building with toys like Duplo

Peg board and block designs

Bilateral co-ordination

Clapping games, finger rhymes

Musical instruments

Ball games

Threading activity

Blow bubbles and reach to clap and pop them

Pull cotton wool apart, tear paper for art work

Eye-hand co-ordination

Target games-rolling, throwing

Paper folding

Darts or Velcro gloves

Marble runs

Writing positions

Standing at a board, easel, table, sand pit or door

On all 4’s - in a crawling position

Prone on elbows on the floor

Sat at a table

Work big to small

Use whole arm movements e.g. in the air with a wand or tube, at the board with chalk or marker

Gradually make the movements smaller and more confined

Multi-Sensory experiences and letter formations

Stimulate all the senses - visual (sight), auditory (hearing), kinaesthetic (movement and feel)

Use different writing tools e.g. a stick in sand, a wet paint brush on concrete, finger paints, chalk, sand trays, shaving foam on tin foil, “gloop” made from corn flour and water, charcoal, felt tips of different sizes, wax crayons, novelty crayons. The ‘magic finger’ on different surfaces - carpet, door, spine, window

Use different writing surfaces - vary the paper type, black/white boards, Magna doodles

Feel letters and shapes hidden in bags - use sand and string to make letters and trace over

Walk around letter shapes - circles, top to bottom, diagonally

Write in the air using whole arm movements, ribbon sticks or pom-poms

Pencil/ Crayon Ideas

 Pre-writing sheets -straight -top to bottom, left to right, circular, diagonal, zigzag - design your own with the child’s interests as a theme e.g. trains, cars, animals

Simple mazes

Dot to dots - start with joining 2 dots and move to more dots as control improves

Tracing

Stencils and templates

Bark rubbing

Scribble and doodle pictures to make hair or clouds

Colouring with in boundaries - commercial felt pictures or PVA glue will give a raised edge to a picture and a signal to stop.

PRACTICE daily if possible and keep practice sessions short (around 5 minutes for 3 and 4 year olds).