Is my child physically ready to write?

Many parents have contacted me recently asking whether they should be encouraging their child to write yet. Without knowing the child it's hard to give specific advice on this however, my generic advice is 'Yes, but...'

I will explain this a little more below.

'Yes' - Please do encourage your children to write or make marks if they are interested and enjoy doing so! And do let your child see you writing as their role model.

'But' - encouraging them to write isn't always about putting a pen or pencil in their hands. There are so many fun ways to prepare your child for writing and so many of these involve developing their muscle strength.

Before a child is able to write and form letters effectively with writing tools such as pencils, they need to develop and strengthen the muscles in their core, their shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands and fingers. All of the muscles from your trunk, down your arm and to your fingertip support your arm when writing. That's a lot of physical development needed for a task that children are expected to do so quickly.

So how can we help to develop these muscles?

Play! It really is the key. So let them climb, swing on monkey bars, crawl through tunnels and pull up on ropes at the park. These things strengthen the core muscles and the shoulder girdle muscles. Both are needed for many other activities including writing. Pushing themselves on a swing is also great for developing shoulder strength. Think about what your arms and shoulders are doing when you are swinging. This strength is key so that you can support your arm when writing.

For most adults, when we write, generally the movement comes from our fingers because our wrist, arm, elbow and shoulder are strong enough to support the hand to glide. Now watch your child write or make marks. Which part of their arm is moving/pivoting the most? Younger children tend to pivot from their shoulder or elbow and as they develop this changes to their wrist. The pivot you observe shows you where they are with this part of their physical development.

My child pivots from their shoulder...

If children pivot from their shoulder (with elbow and wrists generally quite straight) then their shoulder is controlling the movements. These movements tend to be large scale and wide. Encourage your child to dance with their arms waving ribbons or scarves up high and out to their sides. They could also use paint rollers in water to paint a fence, shed or wall. Brooms and mops are also fab for helping children to develop core and shoulder strength.

My child pivots from their elbow...

This means their shoulder is now strong enough to support the elbow. Encourage your child to paint up and down and side to side on a fence with brushes and water, using scrubbing brushes to clean their bike or large toys, using a potato masher to help prepare dinner or using a large spoon to mix things. Activities like these help to work on the elbow strength.

My child pivots from their wrist...

This means their arm muscles are able to support their wrist and hand and it's time to develop those fine motor skills to strengthen the hand and fingers. There are many activities to support fine motor development. You could try squeezy bottles during water play, rolling and poking playdough with fingers and hands or small tools, using small spades and scoops in sand or dirt. Other resources such as pegs, tweezers, buttons and sequins come in handy for helping children to develop their fine motor skills too.

When these physical skills are developed and the muscles are strong enough, holding a pencil to make marks and write is physically a much easier task. It also puts less strain on the muscles and joints meaning children can write more comfortably and form letters more effectively.

Hopefully the information above emphasises the fact that there is a clear link between physical skills and their ability to write and form letters. The more developed they are physically the easier the physical task of writing will become. So yes, do encourage a love of writing and mark making and do encourage your child to have a go. It is vital that children see making marks as an enjoyable thing to do but this could be painting, forming shapes in the sand with a stick, or looking at letters as a prompt and writing those letter shapes in the air with a floaty piece of fabric. Most of all remember that to be writers children need to develop physically. The rush to a pencil isn't necessary. Let them play and develop their muscles so that when the time is right for them they can use a pencil or pen both comfortably and effectively.

Please click the facebook share button if you enjoyed this blog post and know others that would find it useful.