Have a child/children at the centers you work at that seem to refuse or avoid holding a pen? Wondering how you can support them? It seems the pressure to have children write is beginning earlier and earlier, this can lead to avoidance or refusal. 

Before we have children formally writing, it is important to build the necessary visual, sensory and motor skills required to coordinate a pencil on paper. Strengthening these skills can help ensure children are writing ready. So what activities can be organised to help children build these necessary pre-writing skills? 

As writing requires children to use their visual perception, finger discrimination, fine motor skills and sensory information, strengthening these can help make the transition to writing more successful. So what activities can be included in their Early Years Learning and at home to support this? 

1. Crossing the Midline Activities: This is when one arm or leg crosses the imaginary midline of the body. Encouraging children to touch their ears, shoulders, toes, knees ect with the opposite hand can support this. 

2. Beading and threading activities 

3. Tracing hands, feet, shapes objects 

4. Following lines or maze paths with fingers, pencils, paint brushes ect

5. Dotting/ stamping the letters in their names

6. Practicing hand-eye coordination through gross motor activities such as throwing and catching, and fine motor activities such as transferring, posting and beading

There are many other different activities that can support the necessary skills for writing. To access more information OR the free downloads shown in the picture, click the links below:

More Info: https://childdevelopment.com.au/areas-of-concern/writing/writing-readiness-pre-writing-skills/

Editable Name activities: https://www.createprintables.com/name-tracing-pack-worksheets/

Pre-Writing Tracing Cardshttps://natashalh.com/ocean-prewriting-cards/