How to help 4.5 with handwriting

[Anonymous]

What are the best things you have tried? Fairly significant fine motor delay. Can recognize all letters and numbers but has a hard time writing. When is this a really big deal? We are starting PEP equivalent soon and I know they will see if he can write his name.

[Anonymous]

Will your child get OT services at the preschool?

If so, you should probably connect with the therapist and talk about you can best support at home.

How does your child do with forks and knives, scissors, buttons/zippers/snaps?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will your child get OT services at the preschool?

If so, you should probably connect with the therapist and talk about you can best support at home.

How does your child do with forks and knives, scissors, buttons/zippers/snaps?

Okay. He gets OT twice a week privately and will likely not at school. The latest eval was "borderline" delay. But he is not close to writing his name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will your child get OT services at the preschool?

If so, you should probably connect with the therapist and talk about you can best support at home.

How does your child do with forks and knives, scissors, buttons/zippers/snaps?

Okay. He gets OT twice a week privately and will likely not at school. The latest eval was "borderline" delay. But he is not close to writing his name.

oh - he can button, zipper, etc. but it is NOT easy for him, at all. He hates drawing and art in general.

[Anonymous]

slant board, paper with extra big lines and/or raised lines, pencil grip

make sure he can have proper posture--if his legs are too short to reach the floor from his chair, get a stool to rest his feet

This has a lot of good suggestions:
http://therapystreetforkids.com

Remember, little hands tire easily. If he can zipper and button, that's awesome. At 4.5 I wouldn't push the handwriting too much. That's what K (and OT is for).

[Anonymous]

I have a 4.5 year old as well that is about to start pre-K and he recognizes his letters and attempts to write his name but it is very jumbled and huge letters. I haven't been worried about it… Until I read this email. Should I be?

[Anonymous]

4 is about the time they start learning to write their name. Some kids can do it earlier, some take a little longer. Also depends on the name (S's are much harder than O's). Try starting with simple shapes and work the shapes into letters. DD was having issues writing a B (upper or lower) until we focused on just drawing two circles on each other. It's not a perfect B but it's recognizable for now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I have a 4.5 year old as well that is about to start pre-K and he recognizes his letters and attempts to write his name but it is very jumbled and huge letters. I haven't been worried about it… Until I read this email. Should I be?

.

No. This is special needs. Op's kid has a fine motor delay.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't fully worry about it for 6 more months and it could take a while for it to improve. There are tons of different dry erase and workbooks to help. Start with the basic line and work your way up. We did the Kumon workbooks and it helped a lot. OT was good for how to hold a pencil but its pure practice after that.

[Anonymous]

I would work on things that improve finger strength and not worry about handwriting at all for now. Playdough, Legos, moving things with tweezers, painting at an easel -- all good pre-handwriting tasks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are the best things you have tried? Fairly significant fine motor delay. Can recognize all letters and numbers but has a hard time writing. When is this a really big deal? We are starting PEP equivalent soon and I know they will see if he can write his name.

This is one of the things they will help him with. So why are you trying to, in essence, clean before the maid comes?