Question
How do you know if a child is ready for handwriting?
Answer
The following abilities indicate a child’s readiness for handwriting:
- Postural control to sit in the chair (90/90/90)
- Proper pencil grasp
- Bilateral coordination to write with one hand and stabilize the paper with the other
- Grip strength and hand stabilization
- Separation of two sides of the hand
- Independent finger and wrist movements
- Letter recognition and motor memory
- Visual tracking with left to right sequencing
- Understanding of positional terms (“Start at the top”)
- Ability to draw straight, curved, and angled lines
- Attention to detail and focus
- Purpose and motivation
- Ability to express frustration and ask for help
They need to have a good seated posture. We call it in the 90-90-90 position. Their hips, knees, and ankles should be at 90-degree angles. You want to make sure that children are seated in chairs with their feet firmly on the ground. Many times, tables and chairs are all one size, but you have children of different heights. Table height should be about at elbow level when their hand is straight. If the table is too high or low, it might impair their handwriting, and visually, they will see letters differently. You want the child seated correctly before they start writing.
They also need to have a proper pencil grasp as we talked about. They also need to have good bilateral coordination because they need to stabilize the paper with one hand and write with the other. Grip strength and hand stabilization are also important. Often, you will see kids with a death grip on their pencils. They are holding it so tightly that sometimes they will develop a little bump on their finger. Others may hold a pencil or crayon very loosely in their hands which is not functional either.
We talked about the separation of the two sides of the hands. We want also want to see that tripod grasp with their other fingers curled into their palms. They also have to have independent finger and wrist movement and not use their whole hand for movement. They also need to have letter recognition and motor memory. Letter recognition is what the letters look like, and motor memory is the ability to write them without looking at them. A great activity is writing a letter on the child's back and seeing if they can identify the letter by feel. You can also use a file folder to restrict their sight while they are writing words or numbers on paper.
They have to have good visual tracking left to right to prepare them for reading and writing. They also need to understand the prepositional terms. For example, they need to understand the statements start at the top, start on the line, go up, and curve around. They should have the ability to draw straight, curved, and angled lines. If they can draw a circle, a cross, a square, and a triangle, they will know how to make lines that connect to make letters. For example, the triangle has diagonal lines for K, M, and N. When they can draw a square, they should be able to make the letter L or H.
We talked about attention and detail to focus. I have worked with children whose parents' goal was for them to be able to write their names, but cognitively they were functioning at a six-month level. At this stage of development, they have no desire to want to learn how to write their name in sequential order. They do not understand. They need to be developmentally ready so that they understand why handwriting is important. They also have to have the ability to express frustration and ask for help when they need it. There is a lot that goes into handwriting. It looks like a simple skill, but when you really break it down, you see how it can cause such problems for children.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from a course entitled Developmental Skills for Handwriting, by Dena Bishop, OTR/L.
